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FOUR YEARS 

WITH THE 

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 



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FOUR YEARS 



WITH THE 



ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 



iM^ 



REGIS DE TROBRIAND 

BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. VOLS. 



TRANSLATED BY 



GEORGE K. DAUCHY 

LATE LIEUTENANT COMMANDING TWELFTH NEW YORK 
BATTERY LIGHT ARTILLERY, U. S. VOLS. 



ttfj Portrait anti ilHaps 







OCT 22 m^^)^ 

•'•'/iEHiNGTO^' 



BOSTON 

TICKNOR AND COMPANY 

211 ^Trcmont ^trrct 



Wtuxl- 






Copyright, 1888, 
By George K. Dauchy. 



Electrotyped by 

C. J. Peters & Son, Boston, 

U. S. A. 



PREFACE OF TRANSLATOR. 



In preparing this version of General de Trobriand's 
" Four Years with the Army of the Potomac," the 
translator has endeavored, so far as possible, faithfully 
to preserve the sentiments of the author, and the 
very force of the French idioms themselves. 

The story was written soon after the war, from notes 
and a diary, and the lifelike manner in which are 
therein told incidents of army life, of the bivouac and 
of the battle, of the camp and of the field, renews to an 
old soldier of the East the many weary marches in the 
time of rain and in the time of hot sun, through the 
mud and dust of Virginia. 

It brings to his mind the weeks pleasantly spent 
along the banks of the Rappahannock, and near Brandy 
Station, both in summer and in winter, — the many 
awful and deadly combats through the Wilderness, 
along the rivers Po, North Anna, and James, around 
Petersburg, — and, finally, the fierce rush of the last 
campaign, ending at Appomattox. 

It brings back to him the grim face of that indomi- 
table soldier. Grant, the clear-sighted and tireless 
Sheridan, the resolute and cautious Meade, the brill- 
iant Hancock, Reynolds, " Uncle John " Sedgwick, 
Humphreys, and hosts of able and devoted command- 
ers of all ranks. And, finally, it cannot fail to sadden 
him as he thinks of the many friends loved and 

iii 



IV PREFACE OF TRANSLATOR. 

cherished, heroic and patriotic, left behind on those 
blood-stained fields, with hasty sepulture, with hardly 
time to think of their loss, much less to shed a tear to 
their memory, never again to meet them in this world. 

As we look back, in these days of peace, upon the 
years which have passed, we can with difficulty realize 
that those stirring times, which appear to us as of yes- 
terday, are so far away ; and as we see those who were 
actors in the drama so rapidly " going over to the 
majority," we feel that soon the survivors of those 
great scenes will be few indeed. 

If this work is one-half as interesting to my old com- 
rades of the Army of the Potomac, and especially those 
of the Third and Second Corps, as it has been to me, I 
shall be amply repaid for putting it before them in an 
English dress. 



i 



PREFACE. 



In France, the facts in regard to the late war in 
America are very little known. Errors industriously 
disseminated, political prejudices ably worked upon, 
have cooperated to disguise its origin, its character, and 
its results. 

We are surprised that public opinion has been so 
greatly controlled by these influences, considering the 
opportunities it has had to be better informed. But 
amongst people with traditional ideas, and under a 
great governmental mechanism, a party determined to 
adhere to opinions already formed closes its eyes to 
the light. 

This is what has happened when eminent men, who 
have made a study of the great republic of the New 
World, have clearly portrayed the true character of the 
gigantic struggle from which the American democracy 
has just emerged triumphant. 

However, the world advances ; principles are cleared 
from their surroundings, prejudices become feeble, pas- 
sions subside, and time, that great enlightener, rapidly 
develops results which must necessarily assure the tri- 
umph of the truth. 

Meanwhile, it has appeared to me that a narration of 
those events of that war in which I have taken some 
share might be interesting and useful. 

This book, then, is a narrative, and this narrative, as 
indicated by the title, embraces only the operations of 

V 



VI PREFACE. 

the Army of the Potomac. I have not treated /;/ extenso 
of the operations of the other armies. 

I have thus limited myself to those things which I 
have seen, qiKzqjie ipse vidi. I relate them, not as a 
Frenchman who has taken part in a foreign war, but as 
an American who has fought for the country of his 
adoption and for the institutions of his choice. 

My judgments are derived from convictions which I 
have reached by a long road, and by successive stages, 
through the teachings of a somewhat wandering life on 
both sides of the Atlantic. Whatever value the reader 
may attach to these convictions, I ask him to believe 
in the sincerity of my judgments and in the scrupulous 
exactness of my narration of facts. 

I tell of events as they have passed under my eyes, 
and as I wrote them down day by day, in a journal kept 
without interruption from my entrance into service 
until the disbanding of the last of my regiments. 

Evervthing I have here related, which I have not 
myself seen, I have from the evidence of the actors 
themselves, and by a minute comparison with official 
documents and depositions /;/ extenso taken before the 
congressional committee on the conduct of the war. 
I have deemed it my duty to avoid as untrustworthy all 
information derived from individuals, the exactness of 
which I have not been able to verify. 

The reader, then, can follow me in perfect security. 
He will live the life of the camp ; he will be present at 
the organization of the Army of the Potomac, at its 
apprenticeship, at its first efforts ; he will follow it in 
its marches and in its combats, in the bivouac and on 
the field of battle ; he will accompany it in its work, 
in its privations, in its successes and in its reverses. 
In fine, he will take part in the war, — the war itself, 
with all its realities, terrible or glorious. 



PRE FATE. \1I 

This will not prevent us from following the march of 
events outside of the army. Together we will \Tsit 
Xew York and Washington, when the course of events 
calls us there, and there we shall meet men great in 
the political field, as in the camp we shall meet men 
great in militarj- life. 

Is it necessary' for me to add that this book is written 
for ever)- one, and that I have abstained from every- 
thing which might give it a special character ? 

If it pleases, I shall be glad ; if it is interesting, I 
shall be happy ; — and if it be useful, I shall have 
attained the object which I set before myself in 
writing it. 

>lAY, 1S67. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Chicago, December 4, 1886. 
Maj. Gen. RfeGis de Trobkiand, Washington, D.C. 

General, — Having read and enjoyed very much your " Quatre ans a I'Arm^e 
du Potomac," I thought it might be a pleasure to soldiers, especially of our old 
corps, to read it. I have accordingly translated it, — but before revising it I wish 
to ask your consent to its publication. Trusting your favorable consideration, 
I am, Very truly yours, 

GEO. K. DAUCHY, 
Late Commanding Twelfth N. Y. Battery, Third and Second Army Corps. 



New Orleans, La., December 14, 1886. 
Mr. George K. Dauchy, Chicago. 

Dear Sir, — 1 feel much gratified with your favorable appreciation of my 
" Quatre ansde Compagnes a I'Armee du Potomac," as shown by your translation 
of the work, in view of the pleasure which the old comrades of the Third and 
the Second Corps who don't read French may find in reading it in English. 

Your asking my consent to its publication is an act of courtesy which I duly 
appreciate, and to which I can answer only by my thanks and full authorization. 

There are two things only to which I beg leave to call your attention : — 
1st. To try and keep as mucli as possible the color and form of the style of the 
original, by using the equivalent in preference to the literal " mot a mot." 
2d. To leave intact, without modification or extenuation, my judgments upon 
men and things — for, whatever may be otherwise their value, they have at least 
the recommendation in their favor that they are the honest expression of 
seasoned convictions based upon facts, and which I did not find cause to modify 
since the book was published. 

I need not point out to you the many misprints in the French edition, 
especially in the spelling of the English names. It was published in Paris while 
I was in command in Dakota, which made it Impossible for me to revise the 
proofs, so was it that some letter or speech of Mr. Lincoln, which I had called 
" modere," appeared in print as " mediocre," quite another thing. 

With hope that your publication will be successful in every respect, and that 
I will hear from you again, 

I remain, my dear sir. 

Very truly yours, 

R. DE TROBRIAND. 

ix 



CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 

The question of slaver}- — The Missouri Compromise — First attempt 
at secession by South Carolina — Abolition of slavery- in the Eng- 
lish colonies — Its effect in the United States — First Abolition 
candidate for the Presidency- — Annexation of Texas — War with 
Mexico — Increased agitation — Wilmot Proviso — Van Buren, the 
anti-slavery candidate — Disorganization of the Whig party- — 
Compromise of 1850 — Fugitive Slave Law — Kansas-Nebraska 
bill — Civil war in Kansas — Birth of the Republican party — Elec- 
tion of Buchanan — Affair of Harper's Terry — The irrepressible 
conflict I 

CHAPTER n. 
THE MAXXER OF SECESSION. 

Electoral campaign of i860 — Direct menaces of secession — Violent 
scenes in Congress — Charleston convention — Baltimore conven- 
tion — Chicago convention — Second Baltimore convention — Elec- 
tion of Lincoln to the Presidency- — T^e Southern States take up 
arms — Passive complicity- of Buchanan — Treason in the Cabinet — 
Secession of South Carolina — Last attempts at compromise — Se- 
cession of Mississippi — Of Florida — Of Alabama — Of Louisiana 
— Of Georgia — The first shot — Organization of the Southern 
Confederacy- — Inauguration of President Lincoln 31 

CHAPTER HI. 

THE CALL TO ARMS. 

Capitulation of Fort Sumter — Call for seventj-five thousand men — 
Four States refuse to furnish their quota — First regiment en rauU 
for Washington — Bloody riot in Baltimore — No news — Secession 
of Virginia — New call for eighty-three thousand volunteers — Seces* 



Xll CONTENTS. 

sion of Arkansas — Occupation of Alexandria by the Federals — 
Men, but no army — School of the battalion — First successes in 
Western Virginia — General G. B. McClellan — Battle of Buh 
Run S3 

CHAPTER IV. 

FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 
The Guard Lafayette, Fifty-fifth New York militia — Camp at Staten 
Island — Departure for Washington — Collision — At Philadelphia — 
Through Baltimore — Arrival at the capital — Five hundred 
thousand men and five hundred million dollars — Tents — Organiza- 
tion of regiments of infantry — Composition of the Fifty-fifth — The 
insignia of rank, and the uniforms in the American army ... 70 

CHAPTER V. 

THE FORMATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 

The brigade of General Peck — Surroundings at Washington — Regi- 
ments of cavalry — Batteries of artillery — Grand review — The 
Orleans princes — Lincoln and McClellan — Summer storm — Gen- 
eral Buell — Inspections — The defences to the south of the Potomac 

— Arlington, and the Lee family — General Wadsworth at Upton 
Hill — Blenker's division — Movements of the enemy upon the upper 
Potomac , . . . 84 

CHAPTER VI. 

WINTER QUARTERS. 

Settled down at Tenallytown — Moonlight — Pay-day — A case of de- 
lirium tremens — Court-martial — General Keyes — Unfortunate af- 
fair of Ball's Bluff — Arrangements for winter — Ofiicers' mess — 
Flag presentation — President Lincoln at the table of the Fift\--fifth 

— Effects of the war around Washington 109 

CHAPTER VII. 

MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 

Congress — The population of Washington — The lobby and the specta- 
tors — The contractors for the army — The faint-hearted — The gen- 
eral-in-chief — General Seth Williams — The Count de Paris — The 
Duke de Chartres — The diplomatic corps. — Its partiality for the 
South — Why? — Receptions at the White House — Mr. Stanton 

— Mr. Seward — President Lincoln 133 



CONTENTS. XIU 

CHAPTER VIII. 

COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

Opening of the campaign of 1862 — Disagreements at Washington — 
Adoption of McClellan's plan — Militan,- excursion in Virginia — 
Organization of army corps — Embarking for Fortress Monroe 
— Fight of the Monitor and the Merrimac — Disembarking at Hampton 

— The surrounding countrj' — Newport News — March upon York- 
town — The beseeching Virginians 1 52 

CHAPTER IX. 
APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 
Siege of Yorktown — Attack on Lee's mill — The Harwood farm — 
Amongst the sharpshooters — The man hunt — Visit of the general- 
in-chief — Faults of administration — A black snake mayonnaise — 
Marching-out of the Confederate troops — The enemy abandons his 
positions — Evacuation of Yorktown 174 

CHAPTER X. 

THE FIRST BATTLE — WILLIAMSBURG. 

Pursuit — The enemy attacked at Williamsburg — He attacks Hooker's 
division — Peck's brigade the first to receive it — The Fifty-fifth under 
fire — Critical moment — Attack repulsed — Reenforcements arrive — 
Engagement of General Hancock — General McClellan's report — 
Advice of General Couch — A walk on the field of battle — Burial of 
the dead — Visit to the wounded — The amputated — The prediction 
of a Georgia captain 190 

CHAPTER XI. 
DAYS OF SUFFERING. 

Forwara march — Engagement at West Point — Subject for discontent 

— Dinner at Headquarters — Fight of a new kind — The bull and the 
Newfoundland dog — The death of Bianco — Virginia plantations — 
Marsh fever — The Turner house — Delirium — Manna in the desert 

— Anxieties — Battle of Fair Oaks — First days of convalescence — 
Departure for the North 213 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 

The victims of the Chickahominy — The army railroad — Peregrinations 
of a friend in search of me — Hospital tents — Agreeable surprise — 



XIV CONTEXTS. 

Origin of the Sanitary Commission — Difficulties thrown in the way 

— Services rendered — The commission transports — Herculean la- 
bors — Strifes — The loads of sick humanity — Horrible realities — 
The miracles of charity 235 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE. 

Contrasts — New York — The Newport steamer — Boston — Success of 
Stonewall Jackson — Stuart's raid — Return to Fortress Monroe — 
Interview with General Dix — Evacuation of West Point — Arrival 
at Harrison's Landing — The work of McClellan — A characteristic 
despatch — Battle of Mechanicsville — of Gaines' Mill — of Savage 
Station — of ^Vhite Oak Swamp — of Glendale — of Malvern Hill — 
The port of refuge 261 

CHAPTER XIV. 

FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 

Miserable condition of the army — Desertions — Military bravado and 
political manifesto of McClellan — Reconnoissances — Order to evac- 
uate the Peninsula — Delay after delay — Pope on the Rappahan- 
nock — ■ Delay at Alexandria — Night march — Fairfax Court House 

— Death of Kearney — Retreat on Washington — Pope and Mc- 
Clellan 283 

CHAPTER XV. 
BETTER TIMES. 

Invasion of Marj'land by the Confederates — Passage of the FiftT,--fifth 
through Tenallytown — Advance posts on the Monocacy — Transfer 
to the Third Corps — Appearance of Washington — A legacy from 
Kearney — General Birney — How Harper's Ferr\' surrendered to 
the enemy — Battles on South Mountain — Condition of the two 
armies — Battle of Antietam — Attacks in detail — Incomplete Re- 
sult — McClellan's hesitations — Lee returns to Virginia . . . 308 

CHAPTER XVI. 

INTERLUDE. 

General Berry — Volunteer recruiting — Antipathy of the people to the 
conscription — New regiments — Three hundred thousand men raised 
for nine months — The Fifty-fifth reorganized in seven companies 

— Raid of General Stuart into Marjland — The Third Corps at 



CONTEXTS. XV 

Edwards Fern,- — General Stoneman — Colonel Duffie — General Mc- 
Clellan's inacrion — Correspondence with the President — The army 
returns to Virginia — The different classes of farmers — Forward march 

— General McClellan relieved of his command 328 

CHAPTER XVII. 

FREDERICKSBURG. 

Ambrose Bumside, general commanding — Organization of grand di- 
visions — Mrs. L.'s honey — State elections — General Bumside's 
plan — The delay -of the pontoons — Effect of snow — Passage of the 
Rappahannock — Doctor C.'s ner\-es — Battle of Fredericksburg — 
Attack of the enemy's positions on the left — Tragical episode — 
Whose fault was it ? — Disasters on the right — General Bumside's 
obstinacy — Dead and wounded — Return to our camp . . . 351 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
EMAXCIPATIOX. 

Military- balance-sheet for the year 1S62 — The emancipation question 

— The inaugural address of Mr. Lincoln — Reserve of the President 
and of Congress — General Fremont — Abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia — Proposition for gradual emancipation — Gen- 
eral Hunter — Confiscation act — Progress of emancipation — Letter 
of Mr. Lincoln — Religious deputation — Last scruples — Prepara- 
tory dispositions — Definite proclamation of emancipation . . 3S0 

CHAPTER XIX. 
LAST EFFORTS OF BURXSIDE. 

The Fift\--fifth Xew York consolidated with the ThirtT,--eighth — Xew 
Year's day in camp — Abuse of strong liquor in the army — X'ew 
projects of General Bumside — Plan of a cavalry expedition by Gen- 
eral Averill — Intervention of the President — Bumside at \Vashing- 
ton — General X'ewton and General Cochrane — Complications — 
The army in motion — A gloomy night — The army buried in the mud 

— Return to camp — General order Xo. S — How General Bumside 
came to be relieved of the command of the army 397 

CHAPTER XX. 

HOOKER COMMAXDIXG THE ARMY. 

General Hooker's character — Improvements in the army — How pro- 
motions were made — Intrigues and rivalries — Political preferences 



XVI CONTENTS. 

— Brigadier-generals' report — Special marks to designate the differ- 
ent army corps — Poverty of Virginia country people — A pastor with- 
out a flock — Marriage under a tent — Camp fetes — Preparations for 
moving — Combined march on Chancellorsville — Brilliant commence- 
ment of a brilliant conception 413 

CHAPTER XXI. 

CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

First encounter with the enemy — Capital fault — Defensive position of the 
army — Advance position of the Third Corps — Engagement of Bir- 
ney's division — Jackson's attack on the right — Rout of the Eleventh 
Corps — Counter charge of Berry's division — Death of Major Kee- 
nan — Artillery saved by General Pleasonton — Night encounter — 
Episodes — Death of Stonewall Jackson — Renewal of the battle — 
Accident to General Hooker — Remarks on the position — Bayonet 
charge — Movement backward — Sedgwick carries Fredericksburg 
Heights — Combat at Salem — The Sixth Corps at Banks Ford — 
General retreat 435 

CHAPTER XXn. 

INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Position of Hooker after Chancellorsville — The President's letter — 
Lee's army in motion — March on Manassas and Centreville — Gue- 
rillas — Cavalry engagements — Entrance into Maryland — Welcome 
by the people — The enemy in Pennsylvania — Hooker relieved of 
his command — Meade appointed general commanding — Convent 
of St. Joseph at Emmittsburg — Bloody contest near Gettysburg — 
Death of General Reynolds — Report of General Hancock — Concen- 
tration of the two armies 471 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

GETTYSBURG. 

Position of the two armies — Dangerous advance of the Third Corps — 
First attack on the extreme left — The fight of the Third Brigade — 
Double assault on the summit of Little Round Top — Caldwell's 
division in line — The enemy driven back — Graham in the peach 
orchard — General Humphreys — The left line driven in from one 
end to the other — Offensive return — The position recovered — 
Ewell's attack on the extreme right — Night spent in position — 
Renewal of the battle at Gulp Hill — Interval — The scene of the 
action — Everything staked on one blow by the rebels — Account 
taken — Trophies of the Second Corps 49- 



CONTENTS. XVll 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE PURSUIT. 

The field of battle by moonlight — The wounded and the dead — Pursuit 
of the enemy — French's division added to the Third Corps — Politi- 
cal intrusions — Difficult position of General Meade — Council of 
^,ar_ General disappointment — The war carried again into Virginia 
— Battle of Manassas Gap — Lost opportunity — General French — 
Once more on the Rappahannock 5'- 

CHAPTER XXV. 

OPERATIONS DURING THE LATTER PART OF 1863. 

White Sulphur Springs — The Vallandigham affair — Plots of the Cop- 
perheads — Bloody riots in New York — Attitude of Governor 
Horatio Seymour — Western regiments sent to enforce the law — 
Reenforcements hurried to Tennessee — Advance on Culpeper — 
The Sharpshooters — Movement to the rear — The engagement at 
Auburn — Battle of Bristoe Station — Remarks — Visit of General 
Sickles— Battle at Rappahannock Station — Engagement at Kelly's 
Ford — March in line of battle — Mr. John Minor Botts between 
two racks — Mine Run affair— Death labels — Raid on Rich- 
mond 53- 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

ULYSSES S. GRANT, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. 

Condition of the rebellion at the beginning of 1864 — General Grant in 
the West — The capture of Vicksburg — Capitulation of Port Hud- 
son — Victory of Missionary Ridge — Grant appointed lieutenant- 
general— His portrait — His stay at Washington — Reorganization 
of the Army of the Potomac — Official statement of the land forces 
of the United States— How I came to be appointed to the com- 
mand of the garrison and defences of New York 557 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 

Battle of the Wilderness — Volleys d otitrance in the thickets —The 
diverse fortunes — Death of General Wadsworth — Fight in the 
midst of the flames— Result — Battle of Spottsylvania — Death of 
General Sedgwick — Attack on the intrenchments — Success of the 
Second Corps — Twenty hours of conflict — Night movements — 
Continued battles — Engagement on the North Anna — Cavalry 
expedition — Sheridan under the walls of Richmond — Death of 



XVill CONTENTS. 

General Stuart — Battle of Cold Harbor — Account rendered of one 
month of campaign 570 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 

Passage of the James — First attack on Petersburg — My return to the 
army — City Point — General Ingalls — A night at headquarters — 
General Hancock — Losses of my brigade during two months' cam- 
paign — Losses of the Second Corps — Fortnight of extra duty — The 
colored troops — Early's expedition against Washington — Between 
the cup and the lip there is room for : a hanging — First Deep 
Bottom expedition — Hurried return 589 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE iVIINE. 

Universality of Yankee genius — The mine dug by Colonel Pleasants — 
Project of assault — General Burnside's plan — Unfortunate modifica- 
tions — Lots drawn — Last preparations — The match goes out — The 
exi^losion — The crater — Terrible fiasco — The double investiga- 
tion — Different conclusions — The true cause of the want of suc- 
cess 608 

CHAPTER XXX. 

SUMMER HARVESTS. 

General theory of the siege of Petersburg — The pick and the musket — 
Second expedition to Deep Bottom — Death of Colonel Chaplain — 
The trials of a regiment — The mark of death — Presentiments — 
Return to the trenches — Contest for the Weldon railroad — General 
Warren's success — Unfortunate affair of General Hancock at Ream's 
Station — Fort Hell — Origin of the name — Nocturnal coup de main 
— Muskets, cannons, and mortars — Southern deserters — Victories of 
Sheridan, Sherman, and Farragut 635 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

OCTOBER VINTAGE. 

General Butler's success north of the James — Line advanced to the 
Peeble's house — Return to Fort Hell — Misfortunes of a Virginian 
family — General Birney's death — Arrival of recruits at the army — 
Dearth of officers — Political prejudices — Too free talk — Expedi- 
tion to Hatcher's Run — Battle of October 27 — Line broken — 
How the break was repaired — Cavalry on foot — Night retreat — 
The wounded — General Hancock leaves the army 650 



CONTENTS. XIX 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 

Presidential campaign of 1864 — Cleveland convention — Baltimore 
convention — Platforms — Nomination of Mr. Lincoln — Chicago 
convention — Democratic profession of faith — The question of pris- 
oners of war — Barbarities of the rebel government — Nomination of 
General McClellan — Desperate manoeuvres — Election — The army 
vote — Counter-stroke by the Confederates — Thanksgiving. . 671 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 
THE LAST WINTER. 
General Humphreys — A raid to the south of Virginia — Cloth pontoons — 
How a railroad is destroyed — A winter's night — Exodus of negroes — 
Murder punished by fire — Military executions — Renewed operations 
on Hatcher's Run — Last extension of our lines — General Grant's 
chessboard — Sherman's march — Victories in Tennessee — Cavalry 
raids — Capture of Fort Fisher — Schofield in North Carolina — 
Sherman's arrival at Goldsborough — Sheridan at work — His return 
to the Army of the Potomac 687 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE GREAT STROKE. 
Capture and recapture of Fort Steadman — Desperate combats along the 
lines of rifle-pits — General MacAllister — The conscripts under fire — 
The One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York and the Fifty-ninth 
Alabama — General Lee's plans — General Grant's instructions — 
Opinions in the army — First movements — The battle of White Oak 
road — The battle of Five Forks — Warren and Sheridan — Anight 
of engagements — The last assaults — Meeting General Grant — Death 
of General A. P. Hill. — Venit sn7nma dies 705 

CHAPTER XXXV. 
THE DENOUEMENT. 
Evacuation of . Petersburg and Richmond — The pursuit — Arrival at 
Jetersville — The Confederates at Amelia Court House — Engage- 
ments of the rearguard — Fight at Deatonsville — Captures and 
trophies — A great cast of the net — Death of General Read — Opin- 
ion of a Confederate sergeant — The baggage — Meeting General 
Sheridan — High Bridge — The last battle of the Second Corps — 
Communications between Grant and Lee — The coup de grace — The 
Confederate army lays down its arms — Final tableau .... 731 

Chapter XXXVI — Conclusion 754 



LIST OF MAPS. 



Pagb 

Williamsburg 200 

Fredericksburg 360 

Chancellorsville 440 

Gettysburg 500 

BoYDTON Road 660 

General Map of Virginia . . . At the end of the text. 



FOUR YEMS IITH THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 

The question of slavery — The Missouri Compromise — First attempt at 
secession by South Carolina — Abolition of slavery in the English 
colonies — Its effect in the United States — First Abolition candi- 
date for the Presidency — Annexation of Texas — War with Mexico 
— Increased agitation — Wilmot Proviso — Van Buren, the anti- 
slavery candidate — Disorganization of the Whig party — Com- 
promise of 1850 — Fugitive Slave Law — Kansas-Nebraska bill — 
Civil war in Kansas — Birth of the Republican party — Election of 
Buchanan — Affair of Harper's Ferry — The irrepressible conflict. 

The great American rebellion of 1861 had for its 
cause the maintenance and the perpetuation of slavery. 
From whatever point of view we study the develop- 
ment of the facts and the march of events which cul- 
minated in this great conflict, we find at bottom the 
question of slavery ; all else is merely subsidiary. 

This question, pregnant with storms, dated from the 
very establishment of the Republic. The wise men 
who drew up the Constitution were, in principle, op- 
posed to slavery, and could not logically sanction a 
right of property of man over man, when they proclaimed 
" Equality and the inalienable right to liberty " of all mem- 
bers of the human family. In their minds, slavery was 
condemned ; but, constrained to respect great interests, 
they left to time, and to the progressive march of civil- 
ization, the care of adjusting these transitory interests 
to permanent principles. 



2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Antagonism between freedom and slavery was devel- 
oped rapidly by the voluntary extinction of slavery in 
the New England States, in New York, and in Pennsyl- 
vania. The opposing forces beginning at that time to 
be equalized, an active struggle began when the crea- 
tion of new States and the expansion of free labor 
tended to cause the balance to fall on the side of 
emancipation. 

The whole political history of the United States 
turns upon this strife, in which the statesmen of the 
country, for a half-century, expended their strength in 
vain. Their mistak-e consisted in believing in the effi- 
cacy of compromises, a poor expedient to reconcile irrec- 
oncilable differences ; puerile efforts, which, in pres- 
ence of the results, inevitably call to mind the image 
of the dikes of sand which children sometimes, for their 
amusement, raise along the shore, to stop the rising 
tide. 

The most astonishing of these childish freaks was 
the invention of an imaginary line across the American 
continent, to limit forever the domain of liberty and the 
domain of slavery, to give to each its part : this to civ- 
ilization, that to barbarism. 

This compromise line was, as is well known, the- re- 
sult of the first great battle fought by the democratic 
and emancipating spirit of the North, against the oli- 
garchic and pro-slavery principles of the South. 

During the session of Congress in 1818 to 18 19, 
Missouri had asked admission into the Union, but the 
House of Representatives attached to this admission 
the condition that slavery should cease to exist in the 
new State. The Senate refused to sanction this con- 
dition, and the unsettled question was reserved for the 
decision of the next Congress. By both sides, advan- 
tage was taken of this delay, to inflame the passions 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 3 

and envenom the strife. The agitation, deep and vio- 
lent, developed a startling difference between the 
North, which ardently sustained the condition im- 
posed by the House of Representatives, and the 
South, w^hich obstinately declared it unconstitutional. 

Matters had come to such a pass that Congress was 
frightened at probable consequences, and drew back 
before the responsibility of a solution by force of arms, 
in case a solution was not reached by ballot. Could 
the young Republic, which had existed less than half a 
century, stand the terrible ordeal of a civil war, and 
would not the dismemberment of the Union lead to 
such results that both parties would be engulfed in 
one common ruin .'' 

Such was, in fact, the determining cause of the 
" Missouri Compromise," which was not, nor could be, 
a solution. The danger was postponed, slavery had ob- 
tained a respite ; the respite of the condemned. 

It is difficult to suppose that the statesmen of that 
period could really have trusted in the permanency of 
their dike of sand, and that the American people could 
in good faith have believed in the efficacy of a geo- 
graphic fiction to stop indefinitely the advance of lib- 
erty. But the hostile parties accepted the compromise 
as a truce by which each might profit in recuperating 
its strength and in subsequently resuming the contest 
with greater advantage. As for the mass of the peo- 
ple, preoccupied by their material interests, absorbed 
in business, they would naturally favor every respite 
from those exciting agitations, which, to the loss of im- 
mediate profit, interrupted them in their commercial, 
industrial, and agricultural enterprises. 

In democratic governments, the active minorities 
have, in all times, led in their train the passive majori- 
ties. So, in the "sphere militant " of the slavery ques- 



4 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tion, from the instant the vanguard laid down its arms, 
the great bulk of the army celebrated the peace of the 
day, without troubling itself as to whether the war would 
not break out more furiously on the morrow. Thus 
slavery was tolerated in the new State, but forever for- 
bidden north of the line of 36° 30' north latitude, — 
and quiet was restored throughout the whole country 
by the adoption of the Missouri Compromise. 

For ten years, nothing occurred to trouble this peace- 
ful quiet except the temporary excitement incident to the 
two elections, which raised John Quincy Adams and 
Andrew Jackson to the Presidency. The question of 
slavery was not brought forward, and it still slept when, 
in 1830, South Carolina began to prepare for its awak- 
ening by a first aggression against the Federal Union. 

Ever since the establishment of the Republic, the 
prosperous development of the Northern States, their 
rapid increase of population, their marvellous advance 
in the paths of commerce, of industry, of agriculture, left 
the Southern States more and more in the rear. The 
cause lay simply in the relative merits of free and slave 
labor. But the planters of the South would not see it, 
and their discontent sought for grievances in the tariff 

of 1828. 

When a law wounds any one's prejudices, or con- 
flicts with his interests, the most specious pretext with 
which to combat it is to represent it as unconstitutional. 
On this occasion. South Carolina did not fail in this 
particular. She found in Mr. Hayne, one of her rep- 
resentatives in the United States Senate, a strong and 
eloquent interpreter, and for the first time a voice was 
raised in Congress to proclaim the doctrine of Seces- 
sion, to which Daniel Webster's political abilities and 
oratorical power soon rendered befitting justice. 

The history of this dangerous conflict is well known. 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 5 

Beaten in the arena of discussion, South Carolina wished 
to pass from theory to practice. In a convention as- 
sembled at Columbia, in November, 1832, she adopted 
and promulgated an act declaring null and void all the 
acts of Congress imposing duties on foreign importa- 
tions, rejected the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court 
upon the constitutionality of these acts, and proclaimed 
that in case of an attempt at coercion, on the part of 
the United States, the State would withdraw from the 
Union and form an independent government. 

This act was the supreme effort of the spirit of re- 
bellion. President Jackson had just been reelected. 
He replied to the ordinance of nullification, as it was 
called, by a proclamation which left no doubt as to his 
determination to resort to force if the rebels did not 
return promptly to duty. South Carolina, isolated in 
her attempt at revolt, opened her eyes at last to the 
urgent necessity of submission. Upon the proposition 
of Henry Clay, Congress adopted a modification of the 
tariff of 1828, and it was this plank of safety of which 
the rebellious State took advantage to repass its 
Rubicon. 

But if the irritating question of slavery remained thus 
ostensibly foreign to the abortive attempt of South 
Carolina, on the other hand, the cause of emancipation, 
at precisely this epoch, made rapid progress in Virginia. 
After a general agitation amongst the people of the 
State, the question was brought out and spiritedly' dis- 
cussed in the Legislature. The measures proposed for 
arriving at the gradual abolition of slavery failed only 
by a trifling majority ; a fatal check, which, thirty years 
later, was to precipitate the State into an abyss, from 
which the change of a few votes at that time would 
have sufficed to preserve her. 

In 1834, England abolished slavery in its West Indian 



6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

colonies ; and immediately the reaction was felt in 
the United States, by a redoubling of agitation on 
the same subject. A propaganda more active than 
ever was organized, and went to work with a persistent 
energy, to sow abroad everywhere the idea of liberty, 
to secretly spread upon the plantations abolition appeals 
in every form, and to facilitate the flight of slaves by 
all means. 

The South was excited, not without reason, and car- 
ried the question to Congress, where Mr. Calhoun pro- 
posed a penal law against postmasters who, in the slave 
States, should transport or distribute through the mails 
printed matter, illustrations, or other incendiary arti- 
cles. The North protested against the ridiculous pre- 
tence of submitting the mails to the investigations of 
postal employes, who thereafter were to be held respon- 
sible for the circulation of such material. 

Immediately and simultaneously appeared, from nearly 
every one of the free States, petitions to Congress in 
favor of the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia. In vain did the representatives of the South 
oppose the reading of these petitions, the style of 
which was in their eyes a public insult to their con- 
stituents, as well as to themselves. Respect for the 
right of petition prevails, and if the measure asked for 
does not pass, it at least obtains a foothold within the 
field of discussion, and henceforth will never depart, 
until its accomplishment shall be the signal for the 
abolition of slavery in the United States. 

From this time, able men could foresee the inevitable 
consequences of this strife — in a future for which the 
people of the South were preparing themselves, but to 
which the people of the North were blind even to the 
last moment. 

" Let the abolitionists," said Henry Clay, in the Sen- 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 7 

ate, " succeed in their efforts to unite the inhabitants 
of the free States, as one man, against the inhabitants 
of the slave States, then the union of one side will 
engender the union of the other, and this process of 
reciprocal consolidation will be accompanied by all the 
violent prejudices, by all the envenomed passions, by 
all the implacable animosities which have ever de- 
graded or deformed human nature. A virtual disso- 
lution of the Union will have already taken place, 
while the forms still remain. The most precious 
elements of union, mutual good-will, sentiments of 
sympathy, the bonds of fraternity which happily unite 
us to-day, will have forever ceased to exist. One sec- 
tion will hold itself in an attitude of menace and hos- 
tility to the other, and the conflict of opinions will be 
promptly followed by the shock of arms." 

These words of a great statesman and a great orator 
were a prophecy, since realized, point by point, in the 
march of events. But where he saw only the dan- 
gerous intrigues of a party, by viewing from a higher 
standpoint, he could have recognized the marks of 
eternal Providence, and the unfailing development of 
human progress. 

The great financial questions which in 1836 served 
to raise Mr. Van Buren to the presidential chair, as 
successor to General Jackson ; the reaction, which in 
1840 brought the Whig party to power, by the election 
of its candidate. General Harrison ; the premature 
death of the latter, calling Mr. Tyler to the White 
House, — who, vacillating from one party to the other, 
succeeded only in displeasing Whigs and Democrats 
alike ; the boundary question, at this time sharply con- 
tested with England ; the complications brought on by 
the Canadian rebellion, which threatened to bring on 
war between the United States and Great Britain, were 



8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

issues powerful enough to cause the question of slavery 
to be left out of the field of political agitation for sev- 
eral years. The presidential election of 1844 brought 
it to the front again, and, from that time, it not only 
did not retire again to the background, but advanced 
with the step of a giant, and, in a few years, came to 
control all others. 

In 1844, for ^^16 first time, the abolitionists had a 
separate candidate, James G. Birney, whose adherents, 
in separating from the Whig party, took away from 
Henry Clay enough votes to insure his defeat. They 
thus contributed effectually to the election of Mr. 
Polk, the consequences of which were, as is well 
known, the annexation of Texas, and the war with 
Mexico, with the conquest of new territory, all which 
ought apparently to have strengthened the cause of 
slavery by extending its domain. But " Man proposes 
and God disposes." The supposed reenforcement to 
the Southern States was a fatal blow to them, from 
the enormous impulse it gave to the development of 
abolitionism in the North, and precisely from the 
annexation of Texas dates the last phase of the con- 
flict, which, in a few years, was about to end in 
the grand rebellion, the means terrible, but necessary 
in the ways of Providence, to cut in a single day the 
Gordian knot of slavery, which the weak hands of poli- 
ticians would with difficulty have untied in a century. 

In 1846, referring to the negotiations to conclude 
peace with Mexico, Mr. Wilmot, a member of Con- 
gress from Pennsylvania, proposed to pass the bill, 
putting two millions of dollars at the disposal of the 
President, but upon the express and fundamental condi- 
tion "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude 
should ever exist in any part of any territory which 
might be acquired from Mexico, in virtue of any 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 9 

treaty." Such was, in substance, the famous Wilmot 
Proviso, which for a time agitated the country so vio- 
lently. In the House of Representatives, it passed by 
a strong majority, all the Northern members — except 
two — having voted in its favor, whichever party they 
belonged to. In the Senate, the session came to an 
end while the debate on the question was pending, and 
before it came to a vote, and the result was the same 
in the following session. It is well to remark that the 
discussion, at that time, had to do not with the mainte- 
nance of slavery where it then existed, but only with 
its possible establishment where it did not exist. The 
cause of liberty was still on the defensive. 

In 1848, Ex-President Van Buren was the anti- 
slavery candidate. This fact alone is enough to show 
the great progress in public opinion during the admin- 
istration of Mr. Polk. General Taylor was elected, it 
is true, but the large number of votes cast for Mr. Van 
Buren gave to the party he represented an importance, 
which, increasing from day to day, already presaged 
the part it would play in the near future. 

President Taylor died only a few months after his 
inauguration, and the elevation of Mr. Fillmore to the 
supreme magistracy necessitated immediately a recon- 
struction of the Cabinet. From that time began diver- 
gences, intrigues, discontentments, numerous defections 
in the Whig party, whose rapid disorganization went to 
furnish a new element of power to the adversaries of 
slavery. 

The introduction of this system in the free Territories, 
demanded by the South and resisted by the North, was 
the ground upon which the contest was begun with 
fierce ardor on both sides. The question arose from 
the necessity of organizing governments in the territo- 
ries recently conquered from Mexico, whose permanent 



lO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOIVIAC ARMY. 

possession had just been assured by the treaty of 
peace. It was henceforth no longer a question of spec- 
ulative theories ; the country found itself in the face 
of pressing realities. The conflict entered forcibly into 
practical politics. Hence, the great interest in the 
subject, which in a short space of time transformed 
opinions into enthusiasm, sentiments into passions ; 
which on one side gave to the general agitation the 
character of a crusade against the extension of slavery 
in the Territories, and which, on the other, provoked 
significant measures, such as the manifesto signed by 
forty-eight members of Congress, the convention of the 
South at Nashville, and the menace of secession, for- 
mulated under every form of defiance. Everything 
appeared to lead to a decisive crisis, and Mr. Calhoun, 
the chief of the pro-slavery party, believed he could 
virtually announce from that time, in a discourse full of 
prophetic previsions before the Senate, that the Union 
was approaching its end. But, far from seeking to 
conjure away the storm, he desired rather to precipitate 
the explosion. The dissolution of the Union appearing 
to him inevitable in a short time, his opinion was that 
the South should hasten the separation before the 
gigantic and incessant progress of the North had de- 
stroyed all equilibrium between the two sections, and 
put in the balance an overwhelming preponderance in 
its favor. 

The reckoning was correct. If there must be neces- 
sarily an appeal to arms, every delay tended to the ad- 
vantage of the North, and it cannot be doubted that the 
South had, at that time, better material chances to 
establish its independence than when it resolved to 
make tj:ie effort, in 1861. But, at that period, the 
Northern people did not believe in what was a logical 
necessity. Blinded by its faith in its institutions, and 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. I I 

by its veneration for its government, it never consid- 
ered secession possible until the moment when the 
cannon peal at Fort Sumter awakened it from its illu- 
sion. 

In 1850, as in 1820, the only thought was to find a 
compromise, which should forever terminate the agita- 
tion of the question of slavery in the United States. A 
people which believes in the perpetuity of its constitu- 
tion, and in the unlimited continuance of its govern- 
ment, may easily confound a temporary delay with a 
definite solution. 

California, upon demanding its admission into the 
Union as a free State, appeared to open the way to the 
compromise so eagerly sought for. Mr. Clay was 
charged to formulate the terms, of which the principal 
ones were : The admission of California with the con- 
stitution which she had adopted ; the organization of 
territorial governments for the conquered country, with- 
out the intervention of Congress either for or against 
slavery ; the maintenance of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, but the abolition of the slave trade in 
negroes brought within its limits ; the adoption of 
legislation more efificacious for the arrest and return of 
fugitive slaves who had sought refuge in the free 
States or Territories ; finally, the declaration that 
Congress had not the power to prohibit or hinder the 
slave trade between the slave States. 

This new compromise gave rise to memorable and 
prolonged debates, during which Daniel Webster and 
Henry Clay soared to the greatest heights of parlia- 
mentary eloquence. They succeeded, at last, in having 
the compromise adopted by Congress, as the anchor of 
safety, which would save the ship of State from the 
rock of disunion. The illusion was of short duration. 
At the adoption of the compromise, there arose 



r 



12 FOUR YEARS WITH THE P(^T()MAC ARMY, 

amongst the people of the free States a great cry 
of protestation against the measures assuring the 
restitution of fugitive slaves. In changing its ground the 
agitation only became the more intense, and the oppo- 
sition the more violent. In fact, it was no longer the 
question of deciding upon the condition of the distant 
and almost desert Territories : henceforth the jurisdic- 
tion of the free States themselves even in their own 
limits was called in question. They were compelled 
to submit in their own boundaries to the application of 
a right of property which they did not recognize as 
property, which their laws proscribed, and against 
which the public conscience revolted. 

The law was not new, it is true, since it dated back 
to 1793. But its action had been restricted more and 
more, as slavery disappeared successively from the 
Northern States, and it had become a dead letter, 
not less by the reprobation of the people than by 
the acts of the Legislatures. Its revival, in order to 
make it obligatory, was to pour oil upon a fire under 
pretence of extinguishing it. 

It became necessary to recognize this fact, when, an 
occasion of applying the law having occurred, the peo- 
ple of Massachusetts were seen to rise against even the 
decision of the Supreme Court of the State, and, every 
recourse of legal procedure being exhausted, to resist 
violently the reclaiming of a fugitive slave by his old 
master. Blood flowed, and the federal officers were as- 
sailed and given up to popular execration, and never 
after were able, except on peril of their lives, to attempt 
to return a slave to servitude. The last attempt of this 
kind was sufficient to set the whole North on fire 
against the " Southern aggressions," rallying words of 
all the opponents of slavery. 

Thus the waves of abolitionism rose higher and 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 1 3 

higher in proportion as the effort was made to oppose 
new dikes against them. 

From this time the popularity of Mr. Webster was 
engulfed. It foundered under the weight of the con- 
demnation of the very State he represented, and of the 
censures which were poured out upon his head from 
the whole North. Mr. Calhoun died before the end 
of the session, as if crushed by the powerlessness of 
his efforts for the cause of the South. Mr. Clay and 
Mr. Webster were destined to follow him within two 
years. Thus, those three statesmen, rivals in eloquence 
and in popularity, were about to disappear from the 
scene, their eyes already opened to the weakness of 
their work of compromise. 

Nevertheless, in 1852, the two great political parties 
into which the country was divided still existed, and for 
the last time the contest in the presidential election was 
between the Whig and the Democratic parties. 

The question of slavery, however, was no longer 
pushed to one side in their platforms. On the con- 
trary, it was given great prominence in the electoral 
campaign, and, though ostensibly the compromise of 
1850 was approved in both platforms, in reality General 
Scott, put in nomination by the Whig party, was the 
anti-slavery candidate, to whom rallied the abolition 
forces. The Democratic party, on the contrary, placed 
itself squarely in favor of slavery, and, by uniting upon 
this ground the whole South and a portion of the 
North, it assured the success of General Pierce ; a 
sterile triumph, which was destined rather to hasten 
than retard the march of events. The first session of 
Congress under the new administration had hardly 
opened when Mr. Douglas proposed the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, under the form of a bill since 
become famous under the name of the " Kansas- 



14 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Nebraska bill." It must be remembered that the 
Missouri Compromise had in 1820 established a geo- 
graphic line separating foj-cver the territorial division 
assigned on one side to free labor and on the other side 
to slave labor. The work, which was to have been per- 
manent, lasted thirty-two years, and it was about to be 
destroved by the very party w^hom it was designed to 
protect. Blinded by the deceitful brilliancy of the 
electoral victory it had just achieved, the South saw 
in the barrier which defended its favorite institution 
only an obstacle to its expansion. It undertook to 
overthrow it, and it did overthrow it. 

Kansas and Nebraska lie to the north of the line 36° 
30' of north latitude, and consequently slavery was 
therein prohibited by the compromise of 1820. In 
presenting the new^ bill, as chairman of the committee 
on Territories in the Senate, Mr. Douglas proposed only 
to establish the principle that to the population alone 
belonged the right to choose their local institutions, 
and of deciding sovereignly upon the question of free 
or slave labor in the State constitution requisite for 
their admission into the Union. In supporting the 
bill with all its forces, the South wished for much 
more. 

It was resolved to secure to itself those rich coun- 
tries towards which already a current of emigration 
began to flow. It succeeded only in breaking the 
clasp of the box of Pandora, and in putting itself in 
the wrong by a flagrant aggression against the North, 
and carried the contest to a field upon which, for the 
first time in the history of the United States, the oppo- 
nents, henceforth become enemies, were to meet each 
other with arms in their hands. 

The States which had remained stationary in the em- 
brace of slavery perceived with anger that they were 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 1 5 

becoming diminished in comparative importance, and 
passed by in the marvellous progress made by the 
States' growing in number and increasing in population 
under the regivie of libert}-. This led them to the sys- 
tem of provocations, which could tend only to inflame 
the discussions and intensify the strife. The return 
of fugitive slaves had already aroused the resentment 
of the North, and raised a riot in the streets of Boston. 
The repeal of the compromise of 1820 was now about 
to inaugurate the era of civil war in Kansas. 

This Territor}-, connected with the free States by way 
of Nebraska, almost uninhabited, and the State of 
Iowa, very thinly peopled, appeared to be an easy prey 
to the South. Slavery could be introduced without 
effort from all parts of the western portion of Missouri, 
which State, moreover, interposed its whole breadth as 
an insurmountable bulwark to the free emigration from 
Illinois. But, however disadvantageous the conditions 
of the strife were for the free States, they were not 
enough to discourage their energy. ^Massachusetts, 
vigilant and indefatigable enemy of slavery, set to work 
the first to organize an emigration society for Kansas ; 
the other States of New England followed her example ; 
the movement extended to the States of the Northwest, 
and, in spite of the vast distances to be traversed, there 
were soon seen trains of colonists marching from all 
points towards the contested territory. To that emi- 
gration of free men the South could not oppose a pro- 
slavery emigration equal either in numbers or in value. 
As to number, its population was comparatively too 
restricted ; as to value, in lieu of agricultural colonists, 
workingmen, merchants, it could only send to Kansas 
people of the lowest class, called white trash, who, 
under the planters' oligarchy, vegetated in degrading 
misery and abject ignorance. Ferocious by instinct, 



1 6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

disdaining all work, strange to every idea of civilization, 
this class was fit only for brigandage, and amongst 
them, in fact, were recruited the Border Ruffians, who, 
during some years, brought upon Kansas rapine, murder, 
and fire, to the great shame of the federal executive, 
who, it must be acknowledged, covered them for a long 
time with a protection either imbecile or criminal. 

In 1854, an association organized in the county of 
Platte assembled publicly at Weston, Missouri, and 
adopted some resolutions, by which it declared itself 
ready, at the first call, to expel from Kansas all the 
colonists who had settled there under the auspices of 
the emigration societies of the North. This time, the 
aggression was formulated by an explicit declaration of 
war. 

The act followed closely after the menace. 

At the first election of a territorial delegate to Con- 
gress, armed bands of ^lissourians took possession of 
the polls, driving from them the partisans of free labor, 
and of 2871 votes deposited in the ballot boxes 1729 
were illegal. Some months after (March, 1855). when 
the election of members of the Legislature occurred, 
the same armed invasion returned, and this time of 6218 
votes cast only i3iowere legal. And of these 1310 
votes, in spite of all these acts of violence, 791 were 
cast for the anti-slavery candidates*' ^ 

Governor Reeder could not sanction these monstrous 
frauds. He ordered new elections in six districts, five 
of which elected anti-slaver)^' representatives, — the 
sixth district (Leavenworth) remaining, in spite of the 
Governor, in the hands of the Missourians. But the 
first act of the Legislature was to expel the five mem- 
bers, the only real representatives of the inhabitants of 

* See the official report of the committee of inquirj-, appointed at a 
late date bv Congress. 



TEE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 1 7 

the TerritxHy, and to gire their seats to tiiose ^ected bj 
fraud and vk^ence; wbo had been rejected br the 
Governor, who lost his position bj this i^fateoos act. 
So completelj prqMmdeiant vere the interests of tke 
South at the White House ! 

Freed in this manner from all oppositk», the usurp- 
ers of l^islative power gave thexnsdres full swing. 
The aiding c^ a slave to esc^ie, wh^her to a point 
within or without the Tenitmy, was declared a capital 
crime ; giving them asylum, or denying the right <^ 
holding slaves in Kansas, (mt ev^i circulating anti-sla- 
ver)' publications, became a crime, punishable by from 
two to five years' hard labor; to the eicercise of the 
right to vote was attadied the ccmditimi o€ agre^ng un- 
der oath to sustain the fugitive-slaTe law ; and finally 
the laws of Missouri were nt wiasst made a^[^^caUe to 
the Territory of Kansas^ 

WTiat did the great majority of the inhalntants, im- 
migrants from the free States, do ? To su|^pose that 
they bowed the head humbly under the t\Tanny of the 
bcun^-knife and the revolver would be to misconceive 
the courageous energy- with which the cause erf liberty 
always inspires its defenders. They assembled in con- 
vention to protest against the acts of the Legislature, 
appointed ex-Governor Reeder delegate to Congress, 
and finaU}- framed at Topeka Ji S:i:e constitution for- 
bidding slaver\'. Resis:. r -. ever\-\vhere in pro- 
portion to the aggress; :: .::. provoked hatred; 
murder responded to murder ; and violence reached the 
point that the citii" of Lawrence was obliged to arm and 
prepare to defend itself against an imminent attack. 
For several davs the place was \-irtuaIly in a state erf 
siege. But its resolute attitude compelled the Missou- 
rians, assembled to sack the citv\ to refrain, and on this 
occasion they repassed the frontier without deliA'ering 



1 8 FOL'R ^TIARS WITH THE POTO>L\C ARMY. 

battle. The Topeka constitution was afterwards sub- 
mitted to the vote of the people and adopted unani- 
mously, with the exception of forty-five votes, — if we 
except Leavenworth, the headquarters of the bandits of 
the frontier. The State officers and the State Legisla- 
ture were elected in consequence, and Charles Robinson 
was inaugurated Governor the 4th of March, 1856. 

Rightfully the question was settled. The emigration 
from the free States had taken legitimate possession of 
Kansas, and had pronounced unanimously against 
slavery. This logical solution would, perhaps, have 
been accepted from that time, as it was necessarily 
somewhat later by the South, if the election of Mr. 
James Buchanan to the Presidency had not directly 
encouraged them to redouble their efforts to stifle right 
by force. 

The desperate strife which was prevailing in Kansas 
had from its commencement excited the most intense 
feeling throughout the countr}'. From this open fire the 
discord spread to all the States, and each new incident 
produced its corresponding effect, as well at the North 
as at the South. Passions were at fever heat every- 
where, in Congress as in the State Legislatures. The 
ver\- floor of the Senate was the scene of a brutal 
attempt upon the life of Mr. Sumner, senator from 
Massachusetts, in consequence of an ardent philippic 
which he had pronounced against the South and 
against slavery, in reference to affairs in Kansas. 

The press, as may be conceived, was no less active 
than the tribune. The least event took on exaggerated 
proportions in coming to public notice through the 
journals, and the imiversal excitement was supported 
by books, by pamphlets, by writings of every kind, put 
forth continually to increase the flame. 

The old Whig party disappeared in the tumult. The 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 1 9 

new American, or KniKi*-\ofAiM^ party, founded upon 
the principle of opposition to the increasing influence 
of naturalized citizens, had a verj- short life. The 
spirit of hostility to slaver}- and of resistance to the 
aggressions of the South had thoroughly penetrated all 
the free States. It dominated everything, and imperi- 
ouslv demanded a new organization upon that platform. 
The Republican party was bom. 

The time had passed when the adversaries of slavery 
served only to make up a deficiency or an addition to 
the parties who disputed among themselves the political 
power. In the presidential campaign of 1S56 they 
entered the lists, as the only champions of the North, 
bearing on their banners the name of John C. Fremont. 
The contest henceforth took on the character well 
denned by Mr. Seward. It A\-as an ** irrepressible con- 
flict " between the North and the South, between free 
labor and slave labor. Even,- other question had irrevo- 
cably fallen to a relative insignificance. 

The popularity of Mr. Fremont was due much more 
to his venturesome explorations in the Rocky Moun- 
tains and in California than to any political prominence. 
That \\-as precisely what determined the choice of the 
Republican party, too young as yet to burn its vessels 
by putting forvs-ard any of its chiefs noted for radical 
abolitionism. 

To the ** Pathfinder " of liberty, the defenders of 
slaver}' opposed a political hack grown old under the 
harness of the Democratic party, "a Northern man 
with Southern principles,"' according to the expression 
first applied to the successor of President Jackson. 
The savoir^ijire' of Mr. Buchanan was considerovl 
preferable to the ser\-ile compliance of Mr. l^erce. or 
the ambition, more ardent than prudent, of Mr. Doug- 
las, — and, after an electoral campaign conductcvl on 



20 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

both sides with a Yehemence without precedent, the 
last of the pro-slaYery Presidents was raised to the 
chief magistracy of the United States by the vote of 
nineteen States. The six New England States, New 
York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin cast their 
votes for Mr. Fremont, — Maryland voted for Mr. 
Fillmore.' Pennsylv^ania (the State of Mr. Buchanan), 
Indiana, Illinois, and New Jersey decided the election 
by voting with the South ; — an unnatural alliance for 
a lease of the White House for four years. 

The South could not misunderstand the significance 
of the figures. From that time she prepared actively 
for the great rebellion for which the ne.xt election 
would furnish the pretext. Nevertheless, as always on 
the morrow after great commotions, there came a time 
of respite to the universal agitation. The combatants 
took breath, and Mr. Buchanan, profiting by the time 
preceding his inauguration, promised an administration 
equally opposed to all sectional politics, pledging him- 
self in advance to repress every aggression, whether it 
came from the North or the South, taking for a task 
for his Presidency the reestablishment of good feeling 
and of good sentiments amongst all the States, and the 
inauguration of a new era of harmonious prosperity. 
Promises and engagements cost little in such a situa- 
tion. The emission of that kind of political paper 
money is made, unhappily, without guaranty, and its 
real value is established only when the bills become 
due. Thus this issue was not generally taken for ready 
money. 

Mr. Buchanan had hardly taken his seat in the presi- 
dential chair when Congress sent to Kansas a special 
committee of investigation, ordered to find out the real 

' The popular vote was as follows: Buchanan, 1,838,232; Fremont, 
1,341,154; Fillmore, SS4, 707. 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR- 21 

condition of the Territon,-. In the official report which 
was the result or their inquiry.-, rhey say : " All :'- e 
elections have been conrrollec, no. by the 2.;:ui^ 
inhabitants, but by citizens of Missouri ; consequentlv. 
all the officials of the Territory.-, from constable to legis- 
lators, except those appointed by the President, owe 
their position to the votes of non-residents. Xot one 
of them has been elected by the inhabitants, and 
committee has been unable to discover any pc_:--^ 
power, however small in importance, which has been 
exercised by the people of the Territory.'" Here was a 
good opportunity for the President to show the imparti- 
ality which he had promised. This is what happened : a 
considerable band of armed men, coming from different 
Southern States, had invaded Kansas, under the com- 
mand of Major Boford. The United States marshal 
took them into his pay, and furnished them with gov- 
ernment muskets. Lawrence was beseged again, an-d, 
when the defenders had surrendered ther arms to the 
sherrfE, receiving in return a solemn promise of 
security for persons and procectioQ for pcopety, it 
was to see their hotel and ^Mr. Robmsoci's house 
delivered to the flames, their stores to pillage, ? . id 
their two printing-hcuses to a complete destrtiction- 
The principal adversaries of slavery were already 
in flight under an accusation of high treason, and the 
Governor-elect. Robinson, was a prisoner in the r..'~'fs 
of the invaders. In dne. when, in the rnonth or J'tly. 
the liheral Legislature assembled at Toteka. the troops 
of rhe United States dispersed it bv rorce. ilr. 
Fujtanm had tiken ot± the mask. Creature of the 
Sou:h. which had elected Htttt to t*e Presicencv. m 
return he emtloved in its favor the whole execttrre 
power :f the government. Assailed bv the So'tth. 



2 2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

constitutional protection, what remained to the people 
of Kansas by which to defend themselves ? The re- 
course to arms. There had already been an engage- 
ment at Pottawatomie and at Black Jack, where a 
Captain Pate of South Carolina had been taken pris- 
oner, with thirty of his men ; now a fortified camp near 
Lecompton was attacked and carried, and a band of 
pro-slavery men, commanded by Colonel Titus, was 
captured or dispersed. Governor Shannon, having 
then purchased the liberty of Titus and his men, in 
exchange for a cannon taken at Lawrence, was re- 
moved by the President and replaced by Mr. Geary of 
Pennsylvania. The Territory was declared in a state 
of rebellion. The Missourians, under the command of 
Mr. Atchison, formerly a United States senator, took 
possession of Pottawatomie after a vigorous resistance, 
invaded Leavenworth on the day of the municipal elec- 
tion, killed and wounded a number of the inhabitants, 
burned their houses, and forced a hundred and fifty 
of them to leave the Territory. But nothing could 
weaken the vigorous resistance of that population of 
free men, to the aid of whom, moreover, the North came 
with reenforcements of men, and with shipments of 
arms and of munitions of war. For the second time, 
the Legislature elected in accordance with the Topeka 
constitution assembled and attempted to organize. 
Again the marshal of the United States dispersed it, 
besides arresting the president of the Senate, the 
speaker of the House, and a dozen of the most influen- 
tial of the members, whom he conducted as prisoners 
to Tecumseh. Immediately the pro-slavery Legislature, 
proceeding from a fraudulent election, in which the 
inhabitants had taken no part, assembled at Lecomp- 
ton, and convoked a convention to patch up a State 
constitution, by the same means to which it owed its 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 23 

own existence. At last the patience of the House of 
Representatives at Washington was tired of the com- 
plicity of the President in that illegal and violent 
oppression. It passed a bill declaring the acts of the 
territorial Legislature null and void, as " cruel and 
oppressive, and emanating from a legislative body 
which had not been elected by the legitimate electors 
of Kansas, but which had been imposed upon them by 
force and by non-residents." Unhappily, the Senate 
refused to adopt this bill, as also to confirm Mr. Har- 
rison, nominated judge of the Federal District Court, 
at the urgent request of the Governor, in place of a 
pro-slavery betrayer of his trust, who had made use of 
his power otily to assure impunity to the ruffians of the 
frontier. Thereupon Governor Geary sent in his res- 
ignation, and was replaced by Robert J. Walker of 
Mississippi. 

When the election to the convention ordered by the 
territorial Legislature took place, the people who did 
not recognize its usurped authority refused to take 
part in it, and all the efforts of the Missourians could 
hardly bring forth the vote of a fifth part of the regis- 
tered electors. 

When, on the other hand, the election of territorial 
officers occurred, the inhabitants, flocking to the polls, 
elected Mr. Parrot their delegate to Congress by an 
enormous majority, and twenty-seven representatives to 
the Legislature out of thirty-nine. On this occasion, a 
characteristic incident was brought to light. The elec- 
tion returns of a village of eleven houses, called Oxford, 
showed a vote of 1624 for the pro-slavery candidates. 
At the investigation it was discovered that this pre- 
tended roll of votes was only a list of names copied 
alphabetically from a Cincinnati directory. 

Nevertheless, the South did not abandon its purpose. 



24 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The delegates of its two thousand voters drew up a 
State constitution, declaring slavery an indefeasible 
right in Kansas, and prohibiting any emancipation act 
by the Legislature. The Governor protested earnestly 
against the imposition, and departed for Washington to 
prevent its acceptance. He arrived too late. Mr. 
Buchanan had already made haste to approve it offi- 
cially. Like Mr. Geary, Mr. Walker sent in his resig- 
nation, and Mr. Denver of California was appointed to 
succeed him. Lost trouble ! This pro-slavery consti- 
tution, known by the name of the Lecompton constitu- 
tion, had to be submitted to the vote of the people. 
It was rejected by a majority of 10,226 votes. A sec- 
ond submittal, under an order of Congress in August, 
1858, had the same result. Then only the pro-slavery 
Legislature, conquered at last, submitted to the people 
the question of calling a new convention. The vote 
was in the afBrmative, the election of delegates took 
place, and the convention assembled at Wyandotte, July 
5, 1859, ^"<^ submitted a constitution which, like that of 
Topeka, prohibited slavery. It was accepted by popu- 
lar vote on the 4th of October following, and at last the 
conquest was decided for liberty. The State of Kan- 
sas was to enter the Union saved from the stain of 
slavery. 

The strife a outvance, of which I have thus given 
briefly the principal episodes, did not cease for five 
years to excite the whole Union to the highest pitch. 
From the banks of the St. Lawrence to those of the 
Rio Grande, the noise of the strife had filled the land 
without intermission. What was it, in reality, but the 
prelude to that gigantic war for which the South was 
preparing, and in which the North would not yet be- 
lieve '^. In reality, the skirmishers of the two armies 
had met together upon the contested territory. There 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 2$ 

they had fought desperately, supported on both sides by 
reenforcements more numerous on the part of the 
North, more desperate on the part of the South. And 
when at last the victory was assured to the defenders of 
right and to the cause of civilization, as if the events in 
Kansas were not enough to render the animosities irrec- 
oncilable and the supreme shock inevitable, a new 
cause of discord arose suddenly on the borders of Vir- 
ginia ; a fact as significant as it was strange. 

At the confluence of the Shenandoah and the upper 
Potomac, at the point where the water has forced its 
passage through the mountains known by the name of 
Blue Ridge, is situated on the Virginia side the small 
city of Harper's Ferry, connected with Maryland by a 
very fine bridge. In 1859 it had about seven thousand 
inhabitants. The United States government had an 
arsenal there, with arms enough to equip ninety thou- 
sand men, and an armory employing two hundred and 
fifty workmen, capable of manufacturing twenty-five 
thousand muskets a year. 

Now, on the 17th of October of that year, thirteen 
days after the acceptance of the Wyandotte constitution 
by the people of Kansas, the telegraph suddenly an- 
nounced everywhere the astonishing news that Harper's 
Ferry had been invaded by an armed band, which had 
taken possession of the arsenal. Where did it come 
from .'' What was its force ? With what object was this 
incredible attack made .-* That was unknown, but it was 
generally believed that there was an outbreak of the 
workingmen, but on the next day it was learned with 
astonishment that it was an invasion of Abolitionists 
calling the slaves to liberty. Incredible as it appeared, 
and extraordinarv as were the circumstances, the news 
was not less true. There were twenty-two men, — sev- 
enteen white and five black, — who had undertaken to 



26 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

arm all the slaves whom they could collect, and to cut a 
passage with them across Maryland into Pennsylvania, 
where they would disperse in order to escape pursuit. 
The author and chief of the enterprise was John Brown, 
a man sixty years of age, but still of youthful vigor, 
a character imbued with radical abolitionism, and exas- 
perated to fanaticism by the persecutions of which he 
had been the victim in Kansas. Two years before he 
had been compelled to abandon with his family the 
village of Ossawatomie, where he lived and where he 
was remarkable as one of the most intrepid champions 
of free labor. Burning with implacable resentment 
against the pro-slavery oligarchy, with the idea of strik- 
ing at its heart, he had exhausted his means in vain 
efforts, when at last, tired of projects impossible to be 
carried out, he resolved to attempt a stroke hazardous 
even to folly. 

Perhaps he was not entirely mistaken as to the re- 
sults. Perhaps this inflexible old man believed that 
the blood of martyrs fertilized the soil of revolutions ; 
perhaps, in sacrificing his own life and that of his three 
sons, he saw in the near future the day when our liber- 
ating regiments would march to the conflict, singing : — 

John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, 
But his soul is marching on — ' 

However that may be, he had rented a small farm 
eight miles from Harper's Ferry. There he had se- 
cretly provided the necessary arms and munitions, and 
from there he started, at nightfall on Sunday, to attack, 
with his twenty-one men, the government of the United 
States and the State of Virginia. 

The onset was so unexpected that at first he was 

' Le corps de John Brown git pourrissant dans la poussiere, mais son 
ame marche en avant — 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 



7 



successful. About ten o'clock in the evening, the 
city was invaded, the arsenal captured without resist- 
ance, and a score of employes and workingmen were 
made prisoners, together with some prominent citizens, 
intended, doubtless, to serve as hostages. 

Day appeared, but the slaves did not move. Instead 
of that, the first one on whom they laid their hands 
thought only of flying, and was killed by a gunshot. 

Sentinels had been posted at the principal doors. 
The first white man who appeared outside was armed 
with a rifle. To the call, " Who comes there .'' " he re- 
plied by firing, and fell dead, struck by several balls. 
A former officer in the army and the mayor of the city, 
having afterwards advanced to find out the character 
and force of the invaders, met with the same fate. 
There were no more precautions to take. A company 
of militia assembled in haste, attacked and carried by 
assault a building defended by five men, four of whom 
were killed on the spot, and the fifth was taken prisoner. 
Four of the conspirators, seeing things turning for the 
worse, had fled at daybreak, and had regained the moun- 
tains. There remained with John Brown only twelve 
men. 

At their head he fought as did Charles XII. at Ben- 
der. Barricaded, with his prisoners and a few negroes, 
in the fire-engine room of the arsenal, he was attacked 
there by the railroad workmen, who burst in the door 
and killed two men, but were repulsed with a loss of 
seven wounded. The small band found itself reduced 
to eleven combatants. 

During the day a thousand armed men had arrived at 
Harper's Ferry ; but they hesitated before a determined 
assault, through fear of compromising the lives of the 
prisoners. The besieged then endeavored to send out 
two men with a flag of truce ; one of them was badly 



28 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

wounded, the other was taken prisoner. There re- 
mained nine. 

In the evening, a hundred marines arrived from 
Washington with two pieces of artillery. On Tues- 
day, at daybreak, the garrison was summoned to sur- 
render. They refused. If they must die, the bayonet 
was better than hanging. The marines then threw 
themselves against the door and broke it in by a 
heavy ladder ; the first who entered fell dead near 
the threshold. John Brown was struck down by a 
sabre stroke on the head and wounded with three 
bayonet thrusts. His companions fell around him, 
killed or wounded, except two negroes, who were made 
prisoners unhurt. The survivors, even those who had 
escaped the evening before, were taken and were all 
executed. 

John Brown lost the game ; he paid the forfeit with- 
out a murmur. He was brought before the judge, with 
his head and body swathed in bandages, upon a bloody 
mattress. He passed through his trial without boast- 
ing or feebleness, and on December 2 went to his 
death, with a calm eye and a smiling face. This was 
in 1859. I" 1865, when I was shown the place where 
the forlorn sentinel of abolitionism had been hanged, 
there remained no longer a single slave on the Ameri- 
can continent. 

Although this attempt was inspired by abolition doc- 
trines, and was, thus far, connected with events in 
Kansas, in which, besides, its chief actor had taken 
part, the insane attack on Harper's Ferry was, in 
reality, an individual and isolated event. But it was 
immediately made the most of, throughout the South, 
as a flagrant aggression on the part of the North. On 
the other hand, the abolitionist societies redoubled 
their activity and their energy, and drew the Repub- 



THE CAUSE OF THE WAR. 29 

lican party more and more to their views. The irri- 
tation reached the point that Mr. Seward, its principal 
teacher at this time, stated, in a powerful speech, the 
following dilemma : " Either the cotton and rice fields 
of South Carolina and the sugar plantations of Louisi- 
ana will finally be cultivated by free labor, and Charles- 
ton and New Orleans will become markets open only to 
legitimate merchandise ; or the rye and wheat fields 
of Massachusetts and New York will be surrendered 
to slave culture and to the production of slaves, and 
Boston and New York will become markets delivered 
over to the traflfic in the bodies and souls of men." 
The position could not be more clearly stated ; but 
it must be borne in mind that, as yet, the North 
wished only to conquer constitutionally the place in 
the Union to which its preponderance in population 
clearly gave it the right in a democratic government, 
while the South, from this time on, marched openly 
towards secession. 

The pro-slavery leaders played an open game. One 
of them said to me, at this time, " If the Republican can- 
didate is elected, we will leave the Union, we will estab- 
lish a confederation of the South with a government to 
our liking ; we will place a cordon of troops upon the 

frontier, and will hang all d d abolitionists who may 

put foot upon our soil. Then we will have peace at 
home." " Then you will have war," I replied. " War ! 
You do not know this race of traders. Their sole idea 
is to make money and to humbug the people, at whose 
expense they get rich. War will touch them on the 
place they hold most dear, their purse. They will not 
fight." In vain I tried to make him see his error on 
this point. " You are a Frenchman by birth, and the 
French fight for much less than that ; but you cannot 
comprehend the nature of this people. The Yankees 



30 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

will let us go, and will not fight." The Northern men, 
to whom I predicted civil war as the inevitable conse- 
quence of the slavery question, said to me precisely the 
contrary. " Civil war .-* Impossible ! " they replied, 
" The fire-eaters are agitators, who make more noise 
than there is any call for. For years they have cried 
secession ; but when it comes to seriously breaking up 
the Union, that is a different matter. They will not 
dare attempt it." 

Is it not curious that, in the midst of their political 
furor upon the slavery question, the Americans of the 
North, fascinated by the patriotic worship of their 
institutions, would not see whither they were tend- 
ing .-* Always Fenelon's saying : " Man acts, but God 
leads him." 



CHAPTER II. 

« THE MANNER OF SECESSION. 

Electoral campaign of i860 — Direct menaces of secession — Violent 
scenes in Congress — Charleston convention — Baltimore conven- 
tion — Chicago convention — Second Baltimore convention — Elec- 
tion of Lincoln to the Presidency — The Southern States take up 
arms — Passive complicity of Buchanan — Treason in the Cabinet — 
Secession of South Carolina — Last attempts at compromise — Se- 
cession of Mississippi — Of Florida — Of Alabama — Of Louisiana 
— Of Georgia — The first shot — Organization of the Southern 
Confederacy — Inauguration of President Lincoln. 

The question of slavery in the United States-?' of which 
I have indicated the successive phases and irresistible 
developments during forty years, was the only question 
at issue in the presidential campaign of i860. For or 
against slavery — that was the dilemma — the rest 
was nothing. The preludes to the strife were stormy 
in the extreme, sometimes even bloody, as at Baltimore, 
where in the local elections several citizens lost their 
lives. The first official menace of secession came from 
Louisiana. In the month of January the Legislature of 
the State adopted resolutions declaring that the election 
of a Black-Republican to the Presidency of the United 
States would be a sufficient cause for the dissolution of 
the Union, and for the calling of a convention of the 
Southern States, to which Louisiana fixed in advance 
the number of its representatives at six delegates. The 
country, however, was not as yet stirred by that decla- 
ration. The more immediate interest was concentrated 
at that time upon the contest in which the election of 
Speaker of the House of Representatives was con- 

31 



o- 



FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMV 



cerned. The parties were divided so equally as to pro- 
long the contest for more than eight weeks — from 
December 5 to February i. But the Republicans 
finally prevailed, and their candidate, Mr. Pennington, 
was chosen on the forty-fifth ballot. 

As an encouragement to the adv^ersaries of slavery, 
this victory had the effect of stimulating their Efforts. 
For the first time Mr. Lincoln appeared in New York. 
He was known there only by the report of his cele- 
brated debate with Mr. Douglas, with whom he 
had contended, in Illinois, for a seat in the United 
States Senate. 

A vast meeting was organized to hear him, and 
there the platform of the party was expounded and dis- 
cussed by him with a success which commanded atten- 
tion, but yet without menace as regarded the slave 
States. On that side, however, the horizon grew 
darker and darker, and the Legislature of South Caro- 
lina, following the example of Louisiana, recommended 
the appointment of delegates to a Southern con- 
vention. 

Then it was that Mr. Seward, to calm the uneasiness 
of feeling which was manifesting itself in public opinion, 
delivered before the Senate an oration which did more 
honor to his imagination than to his foresight. Accord- 
ing to him, there was no reason to apprehend any 
actual result from the menaces of disunion so many 
times insinuated, formulated, repeated. It was a scare- 
crow designed simply to influence the elections, etc. 
Was Mr. Seward in reality as optimistic as he wished 
to appear ? Was he not working somewhat for his own 
interest .' The result would appear to indicate it, since, 
adopting his \-iews, public opinion considered him from 
that time the destined candidate of the Republican 
party for the Presidency. The threatening declarations 



THE ^L\NXER OF SECESSIOX, ^; 

of the Southern States thus remained without efiect 
upon the ideas and actions of the Xorthem States, 
where the adversaries of slavery triumphed everj'where 
in the spring elections. 

Grave symptoms of hostility appeared under the 
form of conflicts of jurisdiction between the federal 
government and some of the free States. Thus, in 
Massachusetts, a refractor}- witness in the affair of 
Harper's Fern,-, arrested by order of the Senate at his 
residence in Concord, was immediately set at liberty bv 
the interA-ention of the local justice, supported by the 
people. 

And again at Racine, in Wisconsin, a man arrested 
for having aided in the escape of a slave was taken bv 
the people, out of the hands of the federal officials, 
powerless to execute their orders. In the Northwest, 
as in the Northeast, the hatred of slavers* was the 
same, and produced the same resistance. It occasioned 
violent outbursts even wathin the halls of Congress. 

On the 5th of April, in the House of Representa- 
tives, Mr. Lovejoy of Illinois became its interpreter to 
the House of Representatives. " Slavery," cried he, 
''has been justly called the source of all crimes. Put 
in a moral crucible all the crimes, all the vices of human 
nature, and the result will be slaver}'. It exhibits the 
violence of robber}', the sanguinar}' fury of piracy, 
the brutal lust of polygamy," etc. One can imagine 
the immediate effect of this furious outburst. A 
Southern representative rushes out with a cane to 
chastise the orator ; Northern representatives hurr\' 
forward to protect him. A member from Kentucky, 
armed with a long bowie-knife, ostentatiously cleans his 
nails with it, watching for the moment to use it for 
some other purpose. Curses, threats are heard on all 
sides ; and the presiding officer, powerless to calm the 



34 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tempest, can only declare the sitting adjourned, in the 
midst of frightful confusion. 

In the heat of this universal excitement, in the North 
as well as South, in Congress as well as amongst the 
people, in the press as well as on the rostrum, the pres- 
idential campaign was opened by the Democratic con- 
vention assembled at Charleston in the latter part of 
April. Its object was to formulate a declaration of 
principles and to nominate a candidate for the Pres- 
idenc}i\ 

Upon these two points a divergence of opinion was 
manifested from the first — a result nearly inevitable 
from the diverse elements which composed the conven- 
tion, and from their disproportion to the interests they 
represented. Let me explain. 

All the States in the Union, North as well as South, 
were represented at Charleston in proportion to their 
respective population, and consequently by the number 
of their representatives in Congress. Now, the free 
States, being nearly all assured to the Republican can- 
didate, could furnish few electoral votes to the Dem- 
ocratic party ; nevertheless, they had 366 out of 604 
delegates to Charleston, while the Southern States, 
which, on the contrary, would give their suffrages 
nearly u n animously to the part)-, had only 238 members. 
A radical fault. The majority belonged to those who 
could do nothing for the success of the ticket, certain 
beforehand of a defeat in the States which they were 
chosen to represent. 

Another cause of division — the candidate proposed 
by the Democrats of the North was ilr. Douglas, more 
than distasteful to the Democrats of the South by his 
doctrines in favor of leaving to the inhabitants of the 
Territories the liberty of choosing their local institu- 
tions, without interference on the part of Congress. 



THE MAXXER OF 5Z ,^::SSIOX. 5^ 

bv zz± S :.::"::. However. Mr. Dcii^Lis was the dnlj- 
n.^--n -s"]i : , " ' yei mm the issue in favor o»t rise 

party. :r :ie be nominal ed ai Charleslo-n, the 

chances of rbe contesr might yet be favorabie. Bat 
inat was precisely what the separatists did not desire. 
Determined to attempt secession, prepared already to 
support it by arms, they were resolved to reject every 
overture toward conciliation, which in their eyes ^as 
onlv a temporarv deiav. prejudicial to their cause. 

The election of a Republican candidate to the Pres- 
idency would furnish them the occasion or rather the 
pretext desired. They concluded then to hasten the 
issue by the defeat of Mr. Douglas. 

For form's sake, they submitted to the constitutiorLal 
trial of a vote ; in reality- they were arming themselves 
for the revolutionary" trial of rebellion. They consented 
10 play the game, but with the reservation that if ihey 
lost they would not pay the stake. 

Their first work in the Charleston convention was 
consequently the presentation of a political"pn>gramme in 
formal opposition to the system of Mr. Douglas. In it 
rhey demanded the direct intervention of Congress in 
:he government of the Territories, to protect and sup- 
port the importation of slaves, the rigorous execu- 
tion of the law in reference to fugitive slaves, in spite 
of all opposition of the State Legislature, etc. The 
glove was thus thrown down to the Northern fraction 
of the Democracy, which took it up. and. being in a 
majority, substituted for it a decLiration by which the 
party simply left ever\-thing in reference to the con- 
tested subjects to the decision of the Supreme Court 
of the United States. Thereupon the delegations of 
seven Southern States withdrew with much parade, re- 



36 FOUR YE-VRS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

fusing anv longer to take part in the acts of the con- 
rention. 

This withdrawal was with the eWdent object of 
vitiating the nomination of Mr. Douglas, which ap- 
peared to be assured. The two-thirds necessan' for a 
nomination was thus reduced to 165 votes. But, to 
parrv the blow, the convention decided that the num- 
ber necesss." - :'i remain the same as if there had 
been no w.: . that is to say, 202. This decision 

rendered any nomination impossible. Mr. Douglas 
obtain- -eii and fift\' votes, and after fifty- 

five b£- r.vention adjourned to assemble at 

Baltimore on the i8th of June following. About six 
weeks were left to the Democrac}' of the North and 
the Democracy of the South in which to reconcile their 
irreconcilable differences. 

However, the moderate men who had foreseen these 
differences and had no faith in their adjustment had 
been at work for se%'eral months to build up a mixed 
partv, a sort of juste milieti between the two ex- 
tremes, neither flesh nor fish, being careful neither 
to walk upon 'the burning soil of abolitionism nor to 
swim in the boiling springs of slaverv', content to fly 
the banner, already somewhat torn, of the Union for 
itself 

The unionist party assembled in convention at 
Baltimore on the 9th of >Iay. Its platform was 
ra.o*t honrjrable, but of the vaguest sort. It was 
limited to this laconic formula, "The Union, the 
GMJstitution, and the enforcement of the laws." 
There were only two quiet sessions needed to put 
forth the following preiidentia.1 ticket : For Presi- 
d^esiL, John Bell of Tenne*%ee ; for Vice-President, 
• ' ' .-rett of Massachusetts, The c/ ' '.on- 
'. i-^^^r^-ted '[foubtless with the . ,ive 






""BL^" . ^Mi. u y.ii'w^g, J~ 'v^ ' <»' ' 'j-* ' '*»i^:t"f'*-' 



3: ~a 



Ttge- "BHfiTir. "wmr-^zr 




■rr 3t ■2aE- -rsrrnsircs lar 






Mpe^esg ratsg, rise ssacnsie jt zrat 



38 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Senate Mr. Pugh of Ohio, replying to an attack by 
Mr. Benjamin of Louisiana, against Mr. Douglas, had 
declared, without paraphrase, that the North would 
not submit to the dictation of the South, in regard 
to its principles or its candidates, — an explicit dec- 
laration which foretold clearly the fate of the sec- 
ond Democratic convention at Baltimore. It assem- 
bled, in fact, on the day appointed, and the first 
question was that of the rival claims of disputed 
delegations from the South. 

It will be remembered that at Charleston the del- 
egations of seven Southern States withdrew from 
the convention, on account of the adoption of a 
platform contrary to their views. These delegations 
presented themselves again at Baltimore. But dur- 
ing the interval other delegations had been appointed, 
with titles more or less doubtful, from the same 
States, and demanded the exclusive right to repre- 
sent them in the convention. A new cause of divis- 
ion. The convention, which bore ill-will to the dis- 
turbers of Charleston, pronounced against them and 
admitted their competitors. Now the dissension was 
worse than ever. A second convention met and 
organized in opposition to the first one. One rep- 
resented the Northern fraction and the other the 
Southern fraction, and from this irreconcilable antag- 
onism two tickets were immediately put in the field. 
One put forth for popular suffrage, for President, 
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois ; for Vice-President, 
Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia. The other an- 
nounced as candidates, — for President, John C. 
Breckenridge of Kentucky ; for Vice-President, Jo- 
seph Lane of Oregon. Twenty-five States, mostly 
Republican, were represented in the first ; eighteen 
States, nearly all pro-slaver)% Democratic, assembled 



THE MANNER OF SECESSION. 39 

in the second, expressed much more fully their con- 
victions and their tendencies. 

Thus the secessionists of the South accomplished 
their object. In thus irrevocably cutting the Dem- 
ocratic party in two, and separating from their 
Northern allies, they had deliberately assured the 
triumph of the anti-slavery candidate. Certain hence- 
forth of the result, they awaited with impatience the 
signal of open rebellion, hastening besides to com- 
plete the preparations for it with a redoubled ac- 
tivity. 

The party leaders set to work ever)'where to 
preach secession with an indefatigable ardor, and to 
use every effort to excite hatred against the North. 
Frequent and unaccounted-for incendiar}- fires occurred 
in Texas. They were represented as the work of abo- 
litionists sent from New England. Were adulterated 
liquors introduced clandestinely by innkeepers, on being 
discovered and seized, they were transformed in the 
journals to bottles of str)-chnine, sent to the slaves 
to poison the whites en masse. 

At the North, the attempts at accommodation ended 
in nothing, antagonized as they were by their own 
rivalries. Mr. Breckenridge attacked Mr. Douglas 
in Kentucky, and he, on the other hand, denounced 
his adversan,- wherever he conducted his electoral cam- 
paign throughout the North, and also in the South. 
Amongst the Republicans, on the contrary, there were 
neither dix-isions nor clashing. Mr. Seward went 
through the Western States, supporting with every 
effort of his eloquence the candidacy of Mr. Lincoln. 
In the political meetings the violent language of the 
second-rate speakers aroused, here and there, serious 
tumults. At Philadelphia a "unionist" meeting was 
attacked by the Republicans ; at Hannibal, in Missouri, 



40 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

on the contrary, the Republicans were attacked by the 
Democrats. Even in New York, there was ahnost a 
riot at the passage of a procession of " Wide Awakes," 
a Republican association, before the New York Hotel, 
the Democratic headquarters. 

In the month of October the agitation was at its 
height, when some of the local elections took place in 
parts of the Northern States. The results of these 
elections had, for a long time, been recognized as pres- 
aging the result of the presidential election. On this 
occasion, the victory of the Republicans was complete, 
and Pennsylvania, formerly Democratic, ranged itself 
decidedly under the Republican banner. 

When every illusion was thus dissipated before the 
evidence, three distinct plans of secession were for- 
mulated and discussed publicly in the South : — 

1. On the morrow after the election of Mr. Lincoln, 
the Legislature of South Carolina, called together in 
special session, should pass an act, in the name of the 
sovereign State, dismissing the federal officers, direct- 
ing the seizure of the money in the federal sub-treas- 
ury, etc. In case of an attempt at coercion, the assist- 
ance of the other States would be invoked. 

2. The Governors of the States should call together 
their Legislatures by proclamation, as soon as the elec- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln should be assured ; they should 
declare the Union dissolved, and proclaim Mr. Breck- 
enridge President of the Southern Confederation. 

3. They must await the inauguration of l\Ir. Lincoln 
without opposition, and the proposition in Congress for 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia 
would be for the representatives of fifteen Southern 
States the signal to retire en masse and proclaim se- 
cession. It will be seen that the question of separation 
was no longer even considered doubtful, the discussion 



THE MANNER OF SECESSION. 4 1 

bore simply upon the manner of proceeding. This is 
so true that at this epoch overtures were made to the 
French government in the name of the future confed- 
eration. 

The great day at last arrived, — the day of the pres- 
idential election — Tuesday, the 6th of November, 
i860, — date forever memorable, not only in the history 
of the United States, but also in the history of the 
civilized world. The vote was cast everywhere with a 
calm that was solemn, — the momentary calm which 
in the moral as in the physical world often precedes 
the immediate unchaining of the tempest. On the 
evening of the day of election, it was known that the 
State of New York, the last hope of the pro-slavery 
men, had given a majority of more than forty thousand 
for Abraham Lincoln. The result was as follows : Lin- 
coln and Hamlin, 180 electoral votes ; Breckenridge and 
Lane, seventy-two electoral votes ; Bell and Everett, 
thirty-nine electoral votes ; Douglas and Johnson, 
twelve electoral votes. 

Lincoln's majority over all his rivals was sixty-seven 
electoral votes. On the popular vote, he had five 
hundred thousand more than the highest of any of his 
competitors. 

Immediately upon the election of Mr. Lincoln, action 
took the place of menace. On the next morning 
(November 7), the Legislature of South Carolina 
passed resolutions to call a State convention ; then it 
voted the immediate arming of the people, and the 
raising of a million of dollars, and different war meas- 
ures. 

At the same time, military organizations were formed 
on all sides. Secession meetings succeeded each other 
everywhere. The fever for separation seized all the 
cotton States, and even in Virginia the militia were 



42 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

furnished with arms. The flag of the Union disap- 
peared — to give place in South Carolina to the palmetto, 
in Georgia to the old federal standard. In fine, as if 
to complicate matters still more, new troubles broke 
out in Kansas, on account of the delay made by Con- 
gress in the formal admission of the new State. 

To these direct and multiplied attacks against the 
federal government, Mr. Buchanan opposed only the 
inertia of a senile imbecility, or the hypocrisy of latent 
treason. At the opening" of the Thirty-sixth Congress, 
which took place on the 3d of December, his presiden- 
tial message was without force, without inspiration, and 
did not rise above the narrow and shuffling forms of a 
technical discussion. Mr. Buchanan had formerly said 
of Mr. Webster, " He is a remarkable statesman, but 
he is no politician." To which Mr. Webster had 
replied, " Mr. Buchanan is a good politician, but he will 
never be a statesman." The last acts of his political 
career proved that he fell even much below that appre- 
ciation. 

One word of Mr. Seward characterizes perfectly the 
wretched document addressed to Congress. " The 
President," said the senator from New York, "has 
demonstrated two things : i. That no State has the 
right to withdraw from the Union, unless it desires so 
to do. 2. That it is the duty of the President to en- 
force the laws, unless somebody opposes it." 

In addition, treason sat in the very councils of the 
small-minded President. Mr. Cobb, Secretary of the 
Treasury; Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the Interior; 
Mr. Floyd, Secretary of War, belonged to the South, 
and actively favored secession. In order to drive them 
out of their influential positions in the administration 
which they defiled, the discovery of gigantic thefts in the 
Department of the Interior was necessary, thefts in 



THE MANNER OF SECESSION. 43 

which Mr. Floyd was found to be directly implicated, by 
his signature placed upon fraudulent Indian boiiJs. This 
was not, hov/ever, before the powers of the Secretary of 
"War had been used to expedite to the South, under vari- 
ous pretexts, considerable quantities of arms, which must 
aid the rebellion. Mr, Buchanan himself did not clear 
himself from all suspicion of complicity in these ship- 
ments, as shown when a popular riot in Pittsburg had 
stopped the despatch to the South of guns and artillery 
equipments which had been hurried forward by his 
orders. See into what hands the government of the Re- 
public had fallen, and to what men the care for its safety 
must remain intrusted for yet some months. Isolated 
from the nation by general distrust, they had around 
them only a group of intriguers, sharp for the spoils, 
even to the end, hurrying to get the last favors from 
the power still remaining, et quasi apnd senemfestiiiaiitcs. 
On December 20, South Carolina assembled in con- 
vention, declared the Union dissolved, and resolved it- 
self into an independent republic. The scene was sol- 
emn. The delegates, each in his turn, gave in their 
votes as their names were called. They were 169. 
There was not one who pronounced against that revo- 
lutionary measure. An ordinance prescribed the turn- 
ing of the custom revenue into the State treasury ; the 
Governor was invested with all the powers formerly 
exercised by the President, and an executive council of 
four members was appointed to assist him. Secession 
was henceforth an accomplished fact in South Carolina. 
A fatal example, which could not fail to be promptly fol- 
lowed, especially in presence of the persistent inertia of 
the federal government. Already, in fact, the conven- 
tions of five other States were called for the month of 
January, and the armament of volunteers proceeded un- 
ceasingly. 



44 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

To conjure away the evil, Mr, Buchanan could not 
think of anything better than to appoint a day of public 
prayers. Not knowing what saint to invoke, he issued 
a proclamation in form of an order, to invoke the inter- 
vention of Providence, at the special date of January 4, 
1 861. The inspiration did not appear to be that of the 
Holy Spirit, to a people whose practical maxim in mat- 
ters of religion is, " Help thyself and Heaven will help 
thee." And it does not appear that the Orate fratrcs of 
the Rev. James Buchanan had any greater success with 
Providence, for whom secession was the means to ac- 
complish the final and radical abolition of slavery. 

In Congress, the Southern representatives claimed 
boldly the right of separation, which the Northern rep- 
resentatives absolutely denied. Vain discussion, it 
seems to me. Of what avail is right without force ? 
A fiction. In the circumstances in which the United 
States found themselves, what was absolute right } 
Where could it be found .-' Arguments were not want- 
ing on either side. It was with the. Constitution in poli- 
tics as it is with the Bible in religion : every one inter- 
preted it to suit himself, and everybody found there 
what suited him. The Constitution, said the South, 
recognizes slavery, which is the base of our social and 
political organization. You do violence to the Constitu- 
tion in attacking our peculiar institution. — No, cried 
the North, the Constitution, it is true, tolerates slavery 
and we tolerate it in the States where it exists ; but we 
contend against introducing it in the Territories which 
are free, and which will remain free in virtue of the 
powers granted to Congress by the Constitution. — The 
federal agreement being violated, said the South, it 
ceases to be obligatory. Our fathers founded a Union 
of sovereign States, based upon the fundamental prin- 
ciple of self-government, upon the equality of rights in 



THE MANNER OF SECESSION. 45 

common interests, and upon the equal division of influ- 
ence in the central power. To-day the interests have 
become incompatible, the equality of power illusory, 
and, in virtue of the same principle of self-government, 
we make use of our right, and we dissolve the Union. 
— The federal agreement is not violated,- replied the 
North, and remains obligatory. The Union founded by 
our fathers is based upon the formal and perpetual 
renunciation by the States of certain rights of sover- 
eignty. The common interest governs and prevails over 
whatever local interests come in conflict with it ; the 
division of power is in proportion to the number of the 
governed, a logical sequence in democratic institutions. 
You have no right to dissolve the Union. — Above all, 
proclaimed the South, we owe allegiance to the sover- 
eignty of our respective States. — Above all, proclaimed 
the North, we owe allegiance to the sovereignty of the 
federal government. Such were, upon the whole, the 
questions debated at great oratorical length. 

Let us come to the root of the matter, and see what 
there was real under this tumultuous flood of argument. 
For me, who at that time watched the working of af- 
fairs behind the curtain of journalism, I could find only 
this : in spite of the increasing preponderance of the 
North, the South, by its unity of action and the supe- 
riority of its political men, had governed the Union up 
to that time. From the moment when the power was 
taken away from it, it fell to a relative inferiority, which 
was without remedy. Unhappily for the South, the 
disproportion created by its state of comparative stagna- 
tion, in contrast with the gigantic progress of the North, 
was due to a cause which, outside of the development 
of material interests, had dug between them an abyss 
which nothing could fill. I speak of slavery. The 
question always returns to that. The spirit of liberty. 



46 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

which produced such marvels in the North, could no 
longer act in harmony with the old institutions, which, 
in its progressive march, interdicted its access to those 
rich countries, to that fine climate reserved to the 
forced labor of the blacks. In the free States the hatred 
to slavery had increased with the development of civil- 
ization. Thence came that strife of more than forty 
years' duration, which had morally cut the Union in 
two, and which could end only in war, that decisive 
and irrefutable argument. 

In such a case, why these long discussions .' The 
men of the South gave themselves up to them only to 
gain time, and to secure to themselves the best possi- 
ble chance in the trial by battle. But th'e time which 
thev so well employed was by the North, on the con- 
trarv, onlv frittered away in puerile attempts at 
reconciliation. 

Mr. Crittenden, the Nestor of the old Whig party, 
the colleague of the Clays and the Websters, believed 
that the Union could still be saved by a return, pure 
and simple, to the Missouri Compromise. A few of the 
representatives of the frontier States grouped around 
him ; but. to realize his proposition, two-thirds of Con- 
gress would have been necessary, and the House of 
Representatives refused even to hear it read. The 
committees appointed in the Senate and the House of 
Representatives for the especial consideration of the 
state of the Union proposed nothing. In despair as 
to how matters were tending, a general " Peace " con- 
vention was called at Washington, upon the initiative 
of Virginia, yet undecided and unquiet at finding herself 
between the hammer and the anvil. But thirteen States 
— seven free and six slave — were represented in it. It 
is useless to add that the peace conferences in which the 
central States alone took part accomplished nothing. 



THE M-\XXER OF SECESSION'. 47 

While they were talking in the North, what had 
been done in the South ? 

The month of Jannar)- had witnessed the secession, 
successively, of five States — Mississippi, Florida, Ala- 
bama, Louisiana, and Georgia. 

Mississippi transformed the federal post of Vicks- 
burg into a fortress, commanding the navigation of the 
river. Florida seized Pensacola, Georgia seized Forts 
Pulaski and Jackson and the arsenals of Savannah and 
Augusta ; Louisiana, all the forts and arsenals in the 
State ; Alabama, the same. 

Outside of the States formally separated. North Car- 
olina had acted beforehand in occuppng the fortifica- 
tions of Beaufort and Wilmington, and the arsenal of 
Fayette\-iile ; Arkansas taking possession of Little Rock, 
containing nine thousand muskets and forty pieces of 
artiller}- ; finally, Tennessee fortified Memphis, and the 
treason of General Twiggs delivered to the enemy the 
forts, the war material, and part of the troops which 
were in Texas. The first cannon shot had even been 
fired in South Carolina, always eager to push matters 
to the extreme. 

WTien, in December, the South Carolina convention 
had passed the act of secession, the Lnited States 
government had at Charleston only about a hundred 
soldiers, quartered at Fon Moultrie, under the com- 
mand of Major Anderson. This officer, of memorable 
loyalty, understood immediately that, with his handful 
of men, he was there at the mercy of the enemy. Fort 
Sumter, surrounded by water at the entrance of the 
bay which it commanded, offered to him a post much 
more advantageous. He hastened to transfer his com- 
mand to it. There, at least, he was protected against a 
coup de viain. But his position was not less precari- 
ous. The Carolinians occupied all the forts around the 



48 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

bay, which they proceeded to arm, with great activity, 
and, in addition, they built on several points new bat- 
teries, whose lines of fire converged upon Fort Sumter. 
Major Anderson reported to the War Department the 
progress of these menacing works. Fort Sumter was 
not, in point of fact, in a proper state of repair. It 
was short of men, short of munitions of war, short of 
provisions. It was urgent to revictual it and to reen- 
force the garrison. After weary delays and hesitations, 
it was determined, at last, to send the steamer Star 
of the West, carrying two hundred and fifty men, and 
provisions. It was already too late. The transport, 
arriving in the bay, with flag flying, was there received 
by cannon shot, fired from a battery on Morris Island. 
The vessel was a merchant ship hired by government. 
She had to retire without accomplishing her mission. 
Anderson and his little faithful troop were left, aban- 
doned to their fate, and, under the effect of such an 
insult to the national flag, Mr. Buchanan humiliated 
himself to promise to send no more men nor munitions 
of war nor provisions to that handful of brave men, 
who had displayed and defended the flag of the 
United States, in face of the rebels of South Carolina. 
If that is gentleness only, what, then, is cowardice .'' 

The national pride was indignant at such shameful 
feebleness, but the people resigned itself to wait pa- 
tiently. The debased administration had but a few 
weeks more of existence. Public opinion found at 
least some consolation in the knowledge that there 
was one man in the Cabinet whose heart showed 
neither treason nor feebleness, when General Dix, the 
new Secretary of the Treasury, sent to the commander 
of one of the custom house vessels the peremptory 
order, " If ajiy man attempt to haul dozvn the American 
fla.g, shoot him on the spot." 



THE MANNER OF SECESSION. 49 

He was the only member of this emasculated govern- 
ment who gave any sign of virility. The general-in- 
chief, Winfield Scott, was no longer equal to the 
occasion. His glorious reputation belonged to the 
past. 'Enfeebled morally and physically by years, the 
old candidate for the Presidency saw but one issue to 
the strife already entered on, the division of the Union 
into four confederations. — The conqueror of Mexico 
could no longer organize or lead an army. And, in the 
meanwhile, the capital began to be menaced, and, 
with its population impregnated with the Southern 
sentiment, some adventurer might attempt to take it 
by a co7ip de main. 

In the beginning of February, disdaining even to 
assist the inauguration of the President-elect, and prof- 
iting by the passive complicity of the President still 
in office, the six seceding States organized a provis- 
ional government at Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. 
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was designated as Presi- 
dent, and Mr. Alexander Stephens of Georgia, Vice- 
President. The constitution of the new confederation 
was copied from that of the United States, except a few 
variations to agree with circumstances. 

Mr. Davis was known as one of the extreme chiefs of 
the secession movement. Born in Kentucky, in 1806, 
he was at that time fifty-five years old. An old gradu- 
ate of West Point, he had followed the military career 
for some time, and had distinguished himself in the 
Indian wars. Retired upon a plantation in 1835, where 
he devoted himself for some years to the cotton cult- 
ure, he had taken up arms again in 1846 to fight in 
Mexico, as colonel of a regiment of Mississippi volun- 
teers. Peace having restored him to civil life, he had 
been elected senator, had occupied the position of 
Secretary of War during the Presidency of Mr. Pierce, 



i^O FOUR YEARS Willi 11 IE rOl'OMAC ARMY. 

and had afterward retaken his seat in the Senate, 
which the secession of the State which he represented 
caused him to abandon. In spite of his education, he 
was more statesman than soldier ; with a firm will, 
an indefatigable energy, he marched toward his goal 
with the persistence of absolute conYiction or of an 
ambition without scruple. 

Mr. Stephens, on the contrary, had been one of the 
last Unionists of Georgia. He had at first resisted the 
revolutionary movement, and risked his popularity by 
exposing the dangers, the obstacles, and the catastro- 
phes inseparable from the sundering of the Union, with 
a broadness of view and a justness of observation which 
were remarkable. But, this duty accomplished, he had 
accepted his part of the calamities foreseen, and fol- 
lowed the fortunes of his State, which, in his opinion, 
had greater right to his allegiance than the federal gov- 
ernment. In giving to him the second place of impor- 
tance in the Confederacy, the convention had acted 
wisely. It assured to itself the active cooperation of 
an eminent statesman, whose influence must rally 
around it many undecided consciences and wavering 
characters. 

When, then, Mr. Lincoln came to power, he found 
confronting him a confederation organized in the South, 
and already on a war footing. From Springfield to 
Washington his journey through a part of the free 
States had been marked by a series of ovations ; but in 
order to reach the capital he must pass through Mary- 
land, a slave State, which, with the South, had voted 
against him. Information well authenticated had been 
received of a plot against his life, so that he was com- 
pelled to separate from his suite at Harrisburg, and, 
passing through Baltimore under the strictest incognito, 
he reached the end of his journey. He was inaugurated 



THE MLOTN'Ei 1? -BTE^rlCy. 5 1 

oa the 4th of ilarcl-i. the dare iSiirr.ec- His ina^i^-.Til 
address was spaim^ in pledgee, txtrzzz :>-— — er^ies, 
bat firBi and e xp i i crt: i^mms ooiS z.>',.:l% irie ~ -Ltv jr z-cc'j'*- 
ering bjr force all tlie federal propertj tsken froci the 
govemment bjr tbe Scares in rebellion, and his deter- 
mmatioQ to accomplish it. Tbe time of oowsrdlj sxxb- 
terf age vas past, tbe bocir ot actioQ had suired. 

For that terrible tiia!, in wbidi tbe rare of tbe 
Rep'iblic was to be determined tipoo the field ol 
battle, Mr. Lincoln s u i r oc i n ded himself immediareiy 
with men devoted to tbe natiooal caose^ and reso-ved to 
give force to the wiH of tbe peop£& They were : i£r- 
Seward of New York, designated be£oreband for Secre- 
tary' of State ; Salmon P. Ciiase of Ohio, Secretary of 
the Treasury ; Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Secre- 
tary of War ; Gideon WeBes of Connecticxit. Secretary 
erf the Xavy ; Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, 
etc. Bat everything was to be don^ everything to be 
created. 

On relinquishing power to steal away from poMic con- 
tempt into tbe obscorir.' of pnvate life, Mr. Bocbanan 
Idt to his soccessor the Union disnembered, a rd>el 
confederation of six States, to which was about to be 
added in a few days a seventh, Texas, six other 
States in revest against tbe federal anthority, and 
realty belonging already to tbe Sootbam OKifedaacy. 
Against this formidaHe rising diere was no army; 
653 men, including officers, in the capital; emptj 
arsenals ; forts withoot garrison and witboat arma- 
ment ; a navy scattered about, hardly sufficing for the 
protection ci commore in time oi. peace: a treasaij 
nearly empty ; — in fine, the Xorth yet inert, distracted 
in its immobility by differences of opinicm, betrayed by 
personal interests, sending to tbe Sooth clandestinely 
the ix-odoct ci individaal manofactcKies at armsu 



52 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Such was the situation. Many considered it desper- 
ate, but they did not know the immense resources a 
free people can find in the outpouring of its patriotism, 
and what prodigies it can accomplish to save at the 
same time its existence and its institutions. America 
was about to present this grand spectacle to the world. 
She awaited only the signal of the cannon of Fort Sum- 
ter, and she had not long to wait. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CALL TO ARMS. 

Capitulation of Fort Sumter — Call for seventy-five thousand men — 
Four States refuse to furnish their quota — First regiment en route 
for Washington — Bloody riot in Baltimore — No news — Secession 
of Virginia — New call for eight}-three thousand volunteers — Seces- 
sion of Arkansas — Occupation of Alexandria by the Federals — 
Men, but no army -^ School of the battalion — First successes in 
Western Virginia — General G. B. McClellan — Banle of Bull 
Run. 

The month of March was devoted to organizing the 
new administration, and preparing the succor necessary 
for the few forts in the South still preserved to the 
federal government by the fidelity of their command- 
ants. The first fleet was despatched from New York 
on the 7th of April. It was composed of eighteen ves- 
sels of different sizes, and six transports. Its destina- 
tion was kept secret, but it had scarcely got to sea 
when General Beauregard, commanding at Charleston, 
notified Major Anderson, shut up in Fort Sumter, that 
all communication with the city was thereafter forbid- 
den to him. That meant the cutting off of supplies 
from the little garrison, which, up to that time, had 
been able to subsist from dav to day. in \-irtue of ar- 
rangements made bv the commandant under his per- 
sonal responsibility. On the nth, Anderson was sum- 
moned to surrender the fort. He refused. " I shall 
wait for the first cannon shot," he wrote. " If you do 
not reduce the fort, we shall be compelled by famine to 
surrender in a few days." That was no news to the 
cncmv. but it mii^-ht induce him to delav the attack, and 



54 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the chance of receiving aid in time might thus be pro- 
longed. Such, however, was not the case. On the 
next morning, — Friday, April 12, — at four o'clock, all 
the rebel batteries opened fire. The fort held a garri- 
son of only eighty-one men, and was in no state for 
defence. In the casemates, about forty embrasures, in 
course of construction, presented to the view only a 
gaping void, scarcely disguised by curtains of planks a 
few inches thick. Nevertheless, they replied as well as 
they could to the hail of projectiles, which did not cease 
during the day. Red-hot shot set fire to the barracks 
built inside the fort. The garrison had to abandon the 
service of the guns to put out the fire, which, notwith- 
standing, destroyed the buildings. A few ships were in 
view, in the offing ; but it was soon seen that one of 
them had grounded on the bar, and that the others could 
not follow the channel with any chance of reaching the 
fort. The commandant could hold out but two days 
longer with what remained to him of provisions in the 
storehouse. He preferred to spare the lives of his men, 
by shortening a useless resistance, and he capitulated 
on Saturday, in the afternoon. The defenders of Fort 
Sumter were treated with the honors of war, and allowed 
to set sail for the North, where, a few days later, they 
must have been agreeably surprised to see themselves 
transformed into heroes. 

They had done their duty, nothing more. Left to 
themselves, in a hopeless position, they had undergone 
a bombardment of two days, which injured only the 
walls, though they wished it to be well understood 
that they yielded to force only ; after which, they had 
packed their baggage and surrendered the place. With 
the best will in the world, it seemed impossible to find 
anything heroic in it. And yet, to see the ovations 
given to them, to read the dithyrambs composed in 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 55 

their honor, it would appear that Anderson and his 
eighty men had renewed for America, at Fort Sumter, 
what, in ancient times, Leonidas and his three hundred 
had done for Greece, at Thermopylce. The reason was 
that in those few days everything had changed its ap- 
pearance in the free States. Slow as they had been 
heretofore in preparing for war, so much the more 
ready were thev now to rush to arms. The last illu- 
sion was dissipated with the smoke of the cannon of 
South Carolina. 

On the 15th of April, two days after the surrender 
of Fort .Sumter, the President issued a proclamation 
calling for seventy-five thousand men for three months' 
service. The number was entirely insufficient, and 
could not be considered a remedy proportioned to the 
evil ; but, at least, it had the good result to stir up 
the blood of the men of the North and to kindle in their 
breasts the battle fever. Nothing which could con- 
tribute effectually to this end was neglected, and so 
the defence of Fort Sumter, insignificant, considered 
by itself, \N*as exalted to the proportions of an exploit, 
as much to stimulate popular enthusiasm as to honor 
faithful loyalty, at the time when defections were dis- 
honoring the roll of officers of the army, and turning 
against the government the services of nearly all the 
officers coming from the South. 

After the popular ovations came the promotions for 
these happy defeated, whom defeat profited more than 
any victory. The title of hero was at that time easily 
obtained, and the American press long held it very 
cheaply, before the correct value was established by the 
trial of blood and fire. 

North Carolina. Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee 
refused to furnish their quota to repress the rebellion. 
This \s*as virtual separation from the Union. In return. 



50 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

most of the free States offered many more men than 
the number asked for. Pennsylvania and Massachu- 
setts each offered a hundred thousand volunteers. The 
Governor of New York, a practical man and not in- 
clined to exaggeration, promised thirty thousand men, 
armed and equipped, and set himself immediately at 
work to make good his word. 

Whoever saw New York in those days of patriotic 
infection can never forget the grandeur and the strange- 
ness of the sight : the feverish excitement of the peo- 
ple, the busy swarming at the approaches to the militia 
armories, the stream of humanity crowding 1;he streets 
toward the recruiting offices, the immense meetings 
where the people, coming together eii masse, were 
tossed about like angry waves under the passionate 
speech of an improvised orator. An inspiration of fire 
had passed over the multitude, carrying along every- 
thing in its course — everything, even to the allies of 
the South, who for a few days renounced publicly their 
known sympathies, or at least covered them hypocriti- 
cally with the mantle of an affected patriotism. 

It was not, however, the Empire State which, in the 
midst of the universal outburst, had the honor first 
to reply to the call of the threatened government. She 
was preceded by Massachusetts, to whom only forty- 
eight hours were necessary, after the proclamation of 
the President, to forward six hundred and forty men by 
sea to Fortress Monroe, and a regiment of eight hundred 
men by land, destined for Washington. On the i8th 
of April, the Sixth Massachusetts passed through New 
York, drums beating, flags flying, in the midst of accla- 
mations of the population assembled to greet on its 
passage through the city the advance guard of the 
national army. 

Mingled with the crowd, I admired the fine bearing 



I 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 



0/ 



of the volunteers, studied the double character of bra- 
ver}' and intelligence imprinted upon their faces, and 
clapped my hands to the last company. Supernumera- 
ries, without arms and without uniforms, would not be 
left behind, and followed the regiment, ready to take 
the place of the killed, and to relieve the wounded in 
the front Their light baggage, wrapped in handker- 
chiefs, hung from their shoulders like haversacks, and 
they marched to glorv or death, sure in either case of 
ha%Tng done their duty as citizens and as soldiers. 

And I thought, in spite of myself, of the familiar spec- 
tacles of mv early childhood, when the French battal- 
ions denied before the starr\- epaulets of my father ; 
and I asked myself vaguelv if the destiny which had 
deprived me in France of the heritage of his sword 
had not in reser\'e for me in America some compensa- 
tion, in the ranks of these volunteers, marching to fight 
for a cause which had immortalized Lafayette. 

The Sixth Massachusetts was followed almost im- 
mediately by the Eighth and by the First of Rhode 
Island. Their passage through the city roused the emu- 
lation of the Xew Yorkers, and hastened the departure 
of the Seventh, the finest of their militia regiments, 
which followed' after an interval of twenty-four hours. 
These twenty-four hours were marked by an event 
which carried the excitement to its height. The rail- 
road did not at this time furnish a continuous line from 
Xew York to Washington. Both at Philadelphia and 
Baltimore, one was compelled to cross the city either in 
a carriage or in wagons drawn by horses, in passing 
from one station to the other. At Philadelphia, the 
passage of the Sixth Massachusetts was marked by the 
acclamations of the people. At Baltimore, a city de- 
voted to the Southern cause, the people raised a riot to 
stop the passage of the Yankee regimenL It went 



58 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

through, notwithstanding, but at the cost of a bloody 
combat, in which several lives were lost on both sides. 
Some Philadelphia volunteers who were on the way 
toward the cai)ital, poorly armed and equipped, were 
compelled to turn back. 

This was an event of great importance, for the reason 
that it directly menaced the communications with the 
free States of the federal capital enclosed within Mary- 
land. The peril was greater because it was unex- 
pected ; it must be averted at whatever cost. The 
Seventh New York departed immediately, greeted at its 
departure with the enthusiastic plaudits of the imperial 
city. It was quickly followed by the Twelfth, the Sev- 
enty-first, the Eighth, the Sixty-ninth, and others, the 
list of which would be too long. 

They departed ; but days and nights of an.xiety 
passed before any news could be received of them. 
The telegraph wires had been cut on all sides in Mary- 
land, and it was difficult even to follow the movements 
of the troops as far as lialtiniore. Beyond that every- 
thing was uncertain. In the absence of facts, rumors 
had free course, and they were generally of a sinister 
character. People ran together in the streets, and 
called from house to house, to relate what they heard 
here and there. For nearly everything resolved itself 
into rumor. The morning papers, whose extras were 
eagerly sought for until noon, the evening journals, 
whose successive editions were exhausted as soon as 
they appeared, published everything, all the information 
they could get, without certifying to its correctness : 
unless, however, some bold correspondent, who had 
been able to cross the zone of isolation around Wash- 
ington, brought his precious information to the extreme 
point of open communication. New York breathed 
again on learnintr from authentic sources that its regi- 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 59 

ments had not been cut to pieces, that the President 
had not been assassinated, that Washington had not 
been delivered to the flames, as Southern sjTnpathizers 
reported twenty times a day. 

There was a telegraph station in the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel. Even,- evening the spacious hall was in\-aded 
by a compact multitude of the inhabitants of that ele- 
gant quarter. They conversed together with great 
animation while waiting for the news. As soon as a 
despatch arrived, an operator, mounted upon a table, 
read it in a loud voice, before hanging it up on the 
bulletin beard, open to even.- one's inspection. Dur- 
ing the inter\'al, speakers addressed the audience, if the 
absence of news caused the conversation to languish, 
and the crowd dispersed only when the late hour of the 
night promised to add nothing more to the information 
awaited with so much anxiety in the family circle. 

The day at last came when General Butler occupied 
Baltimore. Communications were reestablished- The 
situation could be understood. Really it offered noth- 
ing ven.- encouraging, but, at least, one knew what to 
believe. That was a great gain. Harper's Fern,- and 
its manufactor}- of arms had fallen into the power of 
the Virginians, who had likewise taken possession of 
Norfolk, where the nsLvy yard had been delivered to 
the flames. At Richmond the custom house and postal 
sen-ice had been taken possession of by the rebel 
authorities, proceedings which promptly followed the 
formal secession of the State. In consequence, the 
ports of Virginia and of North Carolina were de- 
clared blockaded. That was all that could be done for 
the raomenL 

Virginia was ver}- much behind the extreme South. 
At the bottom she w-as opposed to separation, and until 
the last moment had made ever}- etEort for a peaceful 



6o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

compromise. At the presidential election she had 
voted for Bell and Everett, the Union candidates. She 
had afterwards taken the initiative in the peace conven- 
tion at Washington to rally the central States around 
Mr. Crittenden in a conservative resistance to the 
passions of the extreme parties. The interests of the 
cotton States were not the same as hers. Slavery had 
no hold in all the mountainous portion of her territory, 
to the west of the Shenandoah ; on the contrary, devo- 
tion to the Union flourished there with energetic 
vitality. Even in the eastern portion of the State, 
servile labor was only an obstacle to the prosperity of 
the country, whose climate, soil, methods of culture, and 
industry had everything to gain from free labor. On 
that account, there was a general tendency towards 
emancipation, against which the planters had to strive in 
order to protect a shameful kind of speculation, which 
enriched them while it impoverished the State. I speak 
of the raising of human cattle and the breeding of 
negroes for the consumption of the cotton States. To 
meet the wants of this trade, the common practice 
upon the Virginia plantations was to keep up an estab- 
lishment in the manner most calculated to increase the 
product as much as possible. This was the only interest 
the State had in the question of slavery. The oligarchy 
of slaveholders monopolized the profits, but the poorer 
class did not profit by it either directly or indirectly. 
Something besides the interest of the slave-breeders was 
necessary then to lead Virginia into the perilous paths of 
secession. A bait to her vanity accomplished the task. 
Richmond, the capital of the Southern Confederacy, — 
that was the will-o'-the-wisp which was put before her 
eyes. She followed it, and was lost in the quagmires. 

How true it is that man is led not by reason, as the 
philosophers pretend, but by the passions which the 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 6 1 

politicians employ. Becoming a participator in the 
rebellion, Virginia became necessarily the great battle- 
field of the war. In every way, and at all points, she 
was about to be trampled over, pillaged, ruined by the 
hostile armies, and, however the war should end, she 
was devoted to fire and sword. Faithful to the Union, 
on the contrary, she would have been covered by the 
protecting" arm of the federal soldiers, whose oper- 
ations, in that event, would have been carried on in 
North Carolina. There would have been the shock of 
battalions, there would the war have made its terrible 
devastations, and the fate of Virginia would have been 
that of Maryland, which, on account of having remained 
in the Union, suffered only the ravages of a few skir- 
mishes and the shock of one battle upon the verge of 
her territory, fought almost immediately after inva- 
sion. Virginia proved in this circumstance that, if, 
according to Mr. Thiers' definition, " a free nation is a 
being which is obliged to reflect before acting," her 
reflections only led her to commit the greatest follies. 
She did not appear to understand that, in alluring her 
by the perfidious bait, the extreme South sacrificed her 
deliberately to its own security. The object was, above 
all, to confine hostilities to the Border States, that is, to 
the country bordering on the free States. Behind this 
bulwark, the heart of the Confederacy believed itself 
safe from attack, but it was counting without Grant and 
Sherman. 

The federal government, however, could no longer 
deceive itself as to the greatness of the task which 
devolved upon it. The call for seventy-five thousand 
militia was like calling for a pail of water to put out a fire. 
The l^resident made a new call for eighty-three thousand 
men, namely forty thousand volunteers for three years, 
twenty-five thousand men for the regular army for five 



62 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

years, and eighteen thousand sailors. The total of the 
two calls was thus raised to one hundred and fifty-eight 
thousand men ; but seventy-five thousand would return 
home at the end of three months. They were, there- 
fore, not to be taken into account. 

On the other side, the Confederacy was in motion. 
Reenforced by the secession of Arkansas, and by strong 
contingents from Kentucky and Tennessee, her forces 
were actually in Virginia. Her skirmishers were seen 
upon the right bank of the Potomac, even in sight of 
the dome of the Capitol. At any moment they could 
possess themselves of Alexandria, nearly in front of 
Washington. It was determined to forestall them. 
On the 24th of May, the city was occupied, and put as 
quickly as possible in a state of defence by six regi- 
ments of New York troops, a brigade from New Jersey, 
and one from Michigan. It was in this advance move- 
ment that Colonel Ellsworth, commanding a regiment 
of Zouaves, was assassinated, at the moment when he 
had himself hauled down the rebel flag, floating over 
the principal hotel of the city. His death, avenged on 
the spot, made a great sensation. He was the first 
officer killed. They were not as yet accustomed to 
see colonels fall by the dozen at a time. / 

The Confederate army was distant only twenty miles, 
established at Manassas, in a well chosen position. Its 
front was covered with field works along the crest of 
steep banks, following the windings of a water-course, 
before unknown, since celebrated — Bull Run. Thither 
flocked the Southern recruits, as the Northern to 
Washington. 

About the ist of June, the forces assembled around 
the capital amounted to no more than thirty-four 
thousand men, of whom twenty-one thousand were 
near the city, and thirteen thousand on the other side 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 63 

of the Potomac. But an average of about a thousand 
arrived ever}- day. 

The eagerness for enlisting continued. Men were 
abundant ; but they must be armed and equipped, and, 
in the absence of armories made ready beforehand, 
the State had everything to create. Private industry, 
to which it was necessar)- to have recourse, sufficed but 
imperfectly to fill orders. \\*hile awaiting the arms, 
usually inferior, which the government had purchased 
in Europe, and those which the American factories 
could deliver only at times more or less distant, uni- 
forms, shoes, equipments were manufactured in haste, 
nearly ever}thing of detestable quality, although paid 
for ver}- dearly. In order to encourage enlistment, 
each new militar}- organization was at liberty to choose 
its uniform, and it may be imagined what latitude was 
taken. The Zouaves were the most in favor ; but what 
Zouaves I 

Each regiment in course of formation had its sep- 
arate camp. The outskirts of the cities were cov- 
ered with them ; I might say infested, for discipline did 
not as yet repress the turbulent and pillaging instincts 
of those rude novices, as little accustomed to obedi- 
ence as were their officers to command. The latter, in 
military matters, were as ignorant as the rest. The 
Governors had no choice, gi^'ing the commissions to 
those who brought the men. On this account, old 
soldiers were verv much sought after, for they alone 
knew how to act as instructors, and to* teach the 
recruits, after a fashion, how to march, and to load and 
tire a gun. They were appointed sergeants without dis- 
pute, and if they could instruct in the movements of 
the platoon thev were almost assured of the rank of 
commissioned officer. 

Besides the ordinary enlistments, open to every one. 



64 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

there were organized in New York a few " schools of 
the battalion," whose members paid their own expenses 
for uniform, instruction, and so forth. The organization 
was composed only of persons in easy circumstances, 
generally educated men. Such was the regiment of 
" New York Rifles." The day was always devoted to 
business, but every night, after dinner, we assembled at 
the armory, to devote ourselves, until a late hour of the 
night, with the greatest ardor, to the " school of the 
soldier," and the " school of the platoon." When the 
weather was fine, we marched out with beating drums, 
to practise the school of the battalion, in some one of 
the large squares of New York, where, if we had no 
moonlight, the gas was enough to light us in our 
evolutions. 

These schools of instruction furnished a certain 
number of capable officers to the army, but at first 
the greatest number came from the nursery of the 
militia regiments. Thus the Seventh New York, which 
returned June i, after a campaign of forty days, if 
not bloody, at least harassing, could count in a few 
months more than three hundred officers of volunteers 
coming from its ranks. One of them, Major Winthrop, 
aid of General Butler, was the first superior officer 
killed on the field of battle, in the unfortunate affair 
of Big Bethel. 

In this manner the month of June passed on both 
sides, collecting together the armies, and organizing 
them as much as possible. There were only a few 
skirmishes without consequence at Fairfax Court 
House, at Bayley's Crossroads, and on the Arlington 
Heights, that is to say, on the line of defence, where 
they began to cover Washington by a line of detached 
forts. The only movement of any importance was an 
advance of General McClellan in Western Virginia, 



THE CALL TO ARMS. 65 

which, in connection with the presence of a body of 
troops of Pennsylvanians at Chambersburg, under the 
orders of General Patterson, had for result the evacua- 
tion of Harper's Ferry by the Confederates, who fell 
back to Winchester. For the Confederates, in fact, the 
fidelity to the Union of the inhabitants of these parts 
added sensibly to the risk of a position too advanced. A 
regiment of federal volunteers raised at Wheeling had 
already gone out to Grafton to meet General McClellan, 
and there the loyal manifestations of the Virginians of 
the West could not be restrained. On the i8th of June, 
they assembled in convention at Wheeling, to declare 
null and void all the ordinances and measures voted by 
the Richmond convention. This done, they proceeded 
to the organization of a provisional government, from 
which came the constitution of a new State, sanctioned 
at a later date by Congress in a formal manner. 

The month of July, great in events, was at first 
marked only by the assembling of the Thirty-seventh 
Congress in extra session, and by a first victory of 
General ]\IcClellan at Laurel Hill. As this successful 
contest was the immediate cause of his surprising fort- 
une, it will be interesting to pause an instant and relate 
the incident. 

General McClellan, born at Philadelphia in 1826, 
was a West Point scholar, from which .he graduated in 
1846, standing second in his class. He was immedi- 
ately sent as second lieutenant of engineers to Mexico, 
where his brilliant services procured for him succes- 
sively the commissions of first lieutenant and captain. 
In 1852 he took part in an exploring expedition along 
the Red River, and was afterwards sent as hydrograph- 
ical engineer to Texas. The work of exploring the 
route for the railroad to the Pacific, across the western 
deserts, was intrusted to him, and procured for him the 



66 FOUR YE-\KS WITH THE IVTX^MAC AKMY. 

oiftcial conix-^^t Illations of Mr. Jefferson Davis, then 
Secretary of War. In 1^55 we tind him studying, 
along with Maiors Delaiield and Mordecai. the organ- 
ir.\::on of the European armies, and present at a part 
c: :he operations of the Crimean war. That part of 
the report which was drawn up by him, published sep- 
--• .:e!v at F ' '.a, did credit to his military knowl- 

.-.^e and to :- . . .\"ation of his mind. However, the 
milirary- career in the United States promised to be 
verv unsatisfactor\- to his ambition. Promotion by sen- 
iority only was desperately slow, and active service in 
time of peace was limited to distant explorations 
through deserts, or the life of a sa\-age in the scattered 
V 5:s of the new Territories. Captain McClellan did as 
.;.-! so many others. In 1S57 he left the service for 
the more agreeable and more lucratiye position of gen- 
-- ' >. ent of the Ohio & Mississippi Rail- 

r:.!-. .u-^ client of the eastern part of that line. 

In 1S61 the war recalled him under the flag. The 
Goyemor of Ohio had at first intrusted to him the 
command of the State troops ; but soon the federal 
government extended his command to that of the mili- 
tary department composed of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
and a part of Pennsyl\-ania and Mrginia. His troops 
entered upon the campaign June i. On the 3d, the 
head of the column surprised and oyerthrew a detach- 
ment of rebels at PhilippL McClellan was still at 
Cincinnati He joined his little army on the iSth, at 
GraftOEL 3-ii a month rolled away before the re- 
sumption oi operations, which had begun in so encour- 
aging a manner. At last, in the middle of July, he 
deiermined to send forward General Rosecrans, at the 
head of four regiments, three from Indiana and one 
from Ohio. Rosecrans encountered in the mountains 
the armv commanded bv Colonel Pegram. He attacked 



^' aJ-3FL ^ 



res- - i iini- :n. 

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P-szram -■ ■zrije^ in*ia: Be-" - :^r^ ae 

' - :--rrf ie 1". - . - - _- 2C-J»'i[ IE xIMirT.: ' _ . _::rfs:3ji 

' :—--'-- — -^ 

' ' - ~ . -j^ 

■ ■ -- i^-.r s: 

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■»ia r-TTt^. iisi -p-L^rias. 2. wnmHiTfr ac T^-f? r i:. r - anf sonae 

•^. il s TSTT "W^r * miw i'r /jjc "wisE T7i~rra=- ""riat 
"STsS II: TTTT 5.I»rnL rl,~-^ Tie :rTM'HK'»fr::?r-- rSSlflt 

V _r -jj rree 'TirT ^sn 2C lie nunrrj it iZI r=Tie' -Tir -y^ 

It lie X:ini ins irsc "Svii rr-:- '^ 

' ' I m r .mi^Tr scCJHnixZltlTl:- _ ^ . _ .1 ims "w'Sr r " - ^ -I. 

- - : _ ..iT'T^erp J2i£ 2C7"lt! "ec a'CT 2. js** imi^srLc TnrTr. saat 
■w^rrEJi !2^:zceir 5: icx line r^sc ic ~t«t Sis:^- Ajai •jik 




Geieril Lm i liai McDcw'^L "wtw camncHnasf lie- 
denscs. ii:s Ttrniiir. fr'c efrn' _ - _ 



68 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

France, and completed at West Point. He had been 
through the Mexican war, on the staff of General Wool, 
and had been a professor at the military academy. He 
was a well informed and experienced officer, who knew 
much better than the journalists and politicians what 
were the risks of an attack made with recruits hardly 
organized, against a numerous enemy fortified in a 
strong position. In reality, his army was not an army. 
The regiments of which it was composed had nothing 
of the soldier as yet, but the arms and the uniforms. 
However brave the men might be, they had had no 
discipline, nor had they been exercised in the most 
elementary manoeuvres. The officers were nearly all 
incompetent. A regiment which had had any practice 
in firing was an exception, as was a colonel knowing 
how to command. As to evolutions in line, they were 
not so much as thought of. But upon the news of 
McClellan's success any longer delay became impossi- 
ble, and the order was given for a general movement in 
advance. 

The defeat of Bull Run had the effect only of giving 
to the strife more formidable proportions. That defeat 
was not surprising. The attack was badly executed, 
because, with an army such as I have described, it was 
impossible for troops to act together or to move with 
any precision. Some regiments fought well, others 
fought very little, others did not fight at all. The 
Confederates had every advantage. Strongly estab- 
lished in a good position, protected by complete lines 
of works, they had only to defend themselves with vigor, 
which they did. They had the good fortune, moreover, 
of being strongly reenforced at the commencement of 
the battle by the army of General Johnston, whom the 
deplorable inaction of General Patterson permitted to 
hasten from Winchester without opposition. 



THE CAUL TO ARMS. 69 

With troops without discipline and without experi- 
ence, an unsuccessful attack is easily changed into a 
rout. In this case the overthrow was complete. The 
soldiers fled, throwing down their arras, teamsters leav- 
ing their wagons, and cannoneers their guns. The 
draught animals served only to hasten the flight of those 
who could get hold of them, and the spectator who had 
come from Washington to witness the v-ictory thought 
himself very fortunate if he lost only his carriage in his 
flight. Thus that horde of men and animals fled far 
from the field of battle in the greatest confusion. 

They stopped only in Washington, after having put 
the Potomac between themselves and the enemy, who 
did not pursue. The Confederates lost there their fin- 
est opportunity. If they had followed up the fugitives, 
they might have entered Washington at their heels, and 
probably without striking a blow. In war, a lost oppor- 
tunity rarely presents itself over again. This was no 
exception to the rule. 

The battle was fought on Sunday, July 21. On 
the 22d, General McClellan was called to the command 
of the army in place of General McDowell. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 

The Guard Lafayette, Fifty-fifth New York militia — Camp at Staten 
Island — Departure for Washington — Collision — At Philadelphia — 
Through Baltimore — Arrival at the capital — Five hundred 
thousand men and five hundred million dollars — Tents — Organiza- 
tion of regiments of infantry — Composition of the Fifty-fifth — The 
insignia of rank, and the uniforms in the American army. 

The Fifty-fifth New York militia, more generally 
known then as the Guard Lafayette, was a French 
regiment. It wore as a distinguishing costume the red 
pantaloon and cap. It was small in numbers, scarcely 
exceeding three hundred and twenty men, the mini- 
mvmi required for a militia regiment. It was not on 
war footing — far from it; but the number sufficed for 
parade, marchings, and funerals, nearly the only re- 
quirements of service in time of peace. 

When, in the month of April, the President made his 
first call for seventy-five thousand men, nobody in New 
York doubted but that the Fifty-fifth would be one of 
the first to respond. There was to be fighting, how 
could a French regiment fail to be on hand .-* Volun- 
teers hurried in multitudes to enroll themselves in the 
ranks ; the companies were filled up rapidly, bringing 
their effective force up to a hundred men each. A 
subscription, opened among the French residents, to 
arm and equip the new regiments without delay, had 
been immediately covered with signatures, and had pro- 
vided abundantly for the military chest. — And yet, in 
spite of all that, the Fifty-fifth did not start. 

70 



FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 7 1 

One day, the regiment had received an order to en- 
camp on the Battery, a public park along the bay, at 
the point of junction of the East and North Rivers. 
Two companies reported there, but the next day a 
counter-order relieved them, to give place to another 
regiment. Public opinion was astonished at these 
marchings to and fro without result, and at these 
delays without satisfactory explanations. The colonel 
threw the responsibility upon higher authorities ; but 
the officers attributed the fault directly to the colonel, 
who, they said, endeavored, with all his power, to dis- 
courage enlistments and impede the departure of the 
regiment. Weary of these goings-on, and of the re- 
criminations, the volunteers went away as fast as they 
had come. Some formed a company in the Sixty-sec- 
ond New York (Anderson Zouaves) ; others in one of 
the regiments of General Sickles' brigade (Excelsior 
Brigade). One day, a whole company had marched 
over, with drums beating, and joined the Fourteenth of 
Brooklyn. Lastly, a large part of the Lafayette 
Guards had connected themselves singly in different 
military organizations, where they found compatriots 
and friends. The officers of the Fifty-fifth, who wished 
to fight, and saw their recruits leaving them, were an- 
noyed at the false position in which they were placed, 
and at the remarks, far from flattering, which were 
made about them in public. To get out of the dilemma, 
they had recourse to a united demand that the colonel 
should substitute, in place of a short leave of absence, 
for which he had asked, a final resignation, which was 
accepted. 

Several weeks passed away in the search for a new 
commander, without success, when my name was pre- 
sented, for the first time, by a lieutenant, who had 
served in France, and the only one of the officers who 



72 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

was personally known to me. Some days after, a com- 
mittee, composed of the major and three captains, 
came to see me on the matter. It was not difficult for 
us to agree. The condition made to me, as a candi- 
date, was that I should lead the regiment to the front. 
The condition I made, on accepting the command, was 
that the regiment should follow me to the front. The 
officers were called together to choose a colonel on the 
2 1st of July, the evening before the battle of Bull Run. 
I was elected unanimously. 

On the 23d, the morning of the battle, a telegraphic 
despatch from the War Department announced to me 
that the services of my regiment were accepted, and, 
one week after, we were encamped on Staten Island, 
across the bay from New York, — the men in barracks, 
the staff only in tents. 

The first business was to recruit, and fill up the 
ranks, depleted during the two months that had 
elapsed. A recruiting office was opened immediately, 
at the regimental armory. Those of the old members 
who had not made engagements elsewhere returned to 
us. New recruits came in squads to our camp ; in 
four weeks our effective force was increased by more 
than four hundred men. 

It was no longer the time when the crowd flowed 
towards Lafayette Hall. Three months of continual 
recruiting had absorbed already a great deal of the food 
for powder. But the hour of the mercenary had not 
yet arrived. All the enlistments were without bounty, 
and, on leaving for the array, I was proud at leading 
only unbought volunteers. Not one of my men had 
received a bounty. 

On the 28th of August the regiment had become 
strong enough to enter upon the campaign. It was 
fully armed and equipped, and better drilled in the 



FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 73 

manual exercise than most of the other regiments of 
volunteers. The officers were all acquainted with this 
duty, which was strictly performed. Among them and 
among the sergeants were found a number of old 
soldiers, good instructors to form the recruits. Some 
had seen service in Algiers, others in the Crimea or in 
Italy, and duty in the field was familiar to them. Each 
one, besides, had his heart in the work. The long sum- 
mer days were devoted to the drill, and a part of the 
nights to the theoretical study. The French regi- 
ment must make a good appearance on arriving at 
Washington. 

Before departing, some vacancies were filled for the 
last time by election in the companies, a system tolera- 
ble in the militia in time of peace, but inadmissible for 
volunteers in time of war, and the Fifty-fifth militia 
was about to be transformed into the Fifty-fifth volun- 
teers. It was thenceforth enrolled in the service of 
the United States for three years, or during the war, if 
the war lasted less than three years, which appeared to 
be beyond question. 

On the morning of the 31st of August, the regiment 
formed in line of battle, knapsacks strapped, and at 
order arms. I took a long look at that double line of 
brave men, gayly marching to meet the hazards of the 
field of battle, where many must shed their blood and 
many lose their lives, of which not one of them 
appeared to think for a moment. At the command, 
Forward ! March ! the noise of the drums was for an 
instant drowned by a rousing hurrah ! The die was 
cast, the Fifty-fifth was on the road to the front. 

I took with me nine companies only, the tenth was to 
join us later at Washington. 

A railroad train stopping at a short distance from 
camp was in waiting to take us to the steamer, which 



74 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

should carry us to Amboy. The steamer was not 
ready. Arms were stacked upon the quay. The men 
had two hours more time to prolong their adieux with 
New York friends. The embarking on board the Paul 
Potter was done in good order and in military style. 
When the ropes were cast off, there was a long ex- 
change of hurrahs between the shore and the steamer, 
which threw her flags and streamers to the breeze. On 
the quay the sun glistened upon a multitude of hats 
thrown in the air, of handkerchiefs waved continu- 
ously, of ladies' dresses shaken by the wind. Soon the 
hurrahs ceased, objects disappeared in the distance. 
Would we ever meet again .-' Adieu ! " The common 
port is eternity," said Chateaubriand. 

At Amboy we took the railroad again ; we had 
advanced but a few miles when the train stopped with 
a violent shock. It was a collision. A freight train, 
fortunately nearly empty, was coming towards us, con- 
cealed by the bends of the road. When seen, it was 
too late to prevent a collision. Two engines disabled, 
a few cars broken up. It is a frequent occurrence in 
the United States. Only in this instance superstitious 
minds might be affected by it as a baleful presage. 
But as our train was heavier, and was moving with the 
greater velocity, and the train coming from the south 
suffered nearly all the damage, the favorable interpreta- 
tion prevailed, and it was considered as foreshown that 
the only prophetic signification of the accident was 
the triumph of the North and the discomfiture of the 
South. Nevertheless, it was necessary to return to 
Amboy, by the aid of a fresh locomotive, to wait until 
evening, while the road was being cleared. At day- 
light the regiment reached Philadelphia. 

In those days of patriotic enthusiasm, the great 
cities of the North made it a duty to come to the aid 



FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 75 

of the government in every possible manner. So that 
those cities which were on the route usually taken by 
the troops going to Washington had organized immense 
free eating-houses, where the regiments were served on 
their way. Philadelphia had one of the best organized 
establishments of this kind. The Fifty-fifth there 
received a generous hospitality. Nothing was want- 
ing. Abundance of provisions for the men ; separate 
table, well supplied, for the officers. Then en route for 
Baltimore. 

There the scene changed. We entered an enemy's 
country. No more welcomes, no more acclamations, no 
handkerchiefs in the air, with " God bless you ! " as in 
Philadelphia ; but a sad silence, hostile looks, murmurs 
scarcely repressed. It was well to take a few precau- 
tions. Before reaching there each man received a dozen 
cartridges. It was the Sabbath ; the sun was warm, 
the weather superb. The women showed themselves 
at the doors and at the windows ; the men thronged the 
streets. At the news of the arrival of the French 
regiment from New York, the people crowded around 
the station, and along the road usually taken from one 
railroad to the other through the centre of the city. 
We evidently called forth more curiosity than sympathy. 

The regiment had scarcely formed in line, after dis- 
embarking from the cars, than the first command was 
to load, the second to fix bayonets, which was done in a 
manner that no one could fail to see. Then the regi- 
ment moved at the sound of the drums vigorously beat- 
ing the French march. No one followed us. Every 
one looked on as we passed. Here and there a few 
remarks were made in French : " What are you going 
to do in Washington .-' — The war does not concern 
you! — You had better remain at home. — You are 
going to get killed for the Americans! — Merci ! — 



76 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC AK^rV. 

What have the people of the South done to you ? " 
The men did not reply ; discipline forbids talking 
while in the ranks. They recompensed themselves 
by mocking airs and gestures more expressive than 
polite. The march was finished without other dem- 
onstration, and that evening, at nightfall, we were in 
Washington. 

Everything there breathed war. Fortifications com- 
menced showed here and there their broken profiles ; 
the fires in every direction marked the places of the 
camps,' and along the railroad the sentinels, posted for 
the night, leaning on their arms, watched us passing. 
Near the station the massive Capitol, surmounted by an 
immense dome, stretched towards heaven, gloomy, dark, 
and silent. Soldiers at the station, soldiers in the 
streets, soldiers everywhere. The train stopped in 
front of a barrack, constructed to shelter temporarily 
the regiments on their arrival. That was our lodging- 
place for the night. The vast room was floored with 
boards. We slept there, covered with our blankets, — 
after receiving a Spartan supper, composed of a piece 
of bread, a slice of salt pork, and a cup of water, more 
or less clear. The volunteers were not treated at 
Washington as at Philadelphia. There generous hos- 
pitality ; here the regular commissar}- fare. 

Every one, to-day, knows what Washington is. An 
imposing city, as yet in a state of expectation : a magnifi- 
cent plan marked out on unoccupied land ; in reality, a 
monumental \-illage, of which Pennsylvania Avenue is 
the principal artery, with straight streets and broad 
avenues running through fields within a few steps of 
this inhabited line connecting the Capitol with the 
White House. A port without wharves and without 
ships, formed by the widening of the Potomac, and ter- 
minated by a bridge remarkable for nothing but its 



length. — a mile and 
other. Nature appear 
thing necessary for i 
The fomiders of the 
believed that tbe poli: 
to the Ca{Mtol a flov. 
portion to the imiv': 
case: In a coontry 
thdr intoests call : 
are determined by t'- 
the develc^ment of 
tmral riches. There: 
are the great cities of : 
New Orleans, Bostor 
nari, St. Louis, Chi ; - 
vantages are not ' 
expected population 
mained vacant, and ^ 
bv the government : : " 
were grouped only : 
than Inxnrions, of th . 
son, the hotds freqcr 
ticiansi, and the shi: 
business <rf evoy kinc s _ 
The active season in Wi 
by the sessions <rf Congres 
years of a feverish vitality 
extinct with it. 

In the month <rf Septeni't-er 
half city and half camp. 7 
lots, where scarcely a ho.: r ~ 
pied by the tents of the 
outer girdle upon all the ne . 
was artillery everywhere. T. 
centrated within a smaller r 









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78 FOUR \'EARS ^^^TH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Commissar}' Department had its quarters in the cen- 
tre of the city, where the uniform was supreme. 

The extra session of Congress, commencing July 5, 
had closed August 5. Its principal results were to 
give to the President live hundred thousand men and 
five hundred million dollars, and to authorize the issue 
of bonds to the amount of tw^o hundred and fifty million 
dollars. The strength of the regular army was raised 
to fort}' thousand men. Without serious opposition, 
the tariff had been raised in rates, direct tax voted, 
and the confiscation of the property of the insurgents, 
including slaves. The power of the executive had been 
increased. Finally, ever)'thing had been provided, that 
the President might act without hindrance in the re- 
pression of the rebellion, until the ne.xt session of Con- 
gress, in the early days of December. 

The army then was supreme in Washington, so much 
the more that the sound of the enemy's cannon could 
be distinctly heard there, and that from the top of the 
dome of the Capitol the rebel flag could be seen float- 
ing from Munson's HilL 

The morning after our arrival, an officer was sent 
from the War Department to conduct us to the place 
of our temporary encampment. A recent order had 
been issued, that the regiments should march directly 
to their camping grounds, without passing along Penn- 
sylvania Avenue, where the continuous and dail)' march- 
ing of troops had at last become tiresome. However, 
the fine bearing of the Fifty-fifth procured it the honor 
of an exception, and it took the via sacra on its route 
to Meridian Hill, where suitable camping ground was 
still unoccupied. 

The administration of the war was not yet well enough 
organized successfully to attend to the great increase 
of labor which the concentration of a powerful army at 



FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 79 






Washington imposed upon iL It is not ver\- 
ing, then, that we were left at Meridian Hiil cwenty-ioiir 
hours without rations, without tents, aBd without wood. 
Happily for us, we had still with us some rations, 
brought from New York. Besides, the weather w-as 
warm, and that first night passed away easily enough, 
a la ht-ilr etoiU. The following day the rents and 
provisions came to hand. 

The government gave out tents with a profusion im- 
possible during a campaign, as we shall see later on. 
They were of two kinds ; for the officers, wall tents, 
ten feet square, with perpendicular side walls three feet 
high, ha\-ing the form of a little hoiise ; for the non- 
commissioned officers and men, wedge tents, six feet 
deep by six feet front on the ground, issued in the pro- 
portion of one for four men ; so that for a regiment of 
one thousand men there were two tents for the colo- 
nel, two for the lieutenant-colonel, two for the major, 
two for the adjutant and his office, two for the two 
surgeons, one for each captain, one for the two lieu- 
tenants of each company ; total, thirty-two wall tents 
and two hundred and fifty wedge tents, besides two 
hospital tents, fourteen feet by fifteen. 

However, the style was not uniform, and a number 
of the regiments were furnished with Sibley tents, so 
called from the inventor, who had procured their adop- 
tion for the regular arm v. They were great cloth cones, 
capped by a mo\"able cape, raised up to air the interior, 
and to let out the smoke from a stove during the winter. 
Sixteen men could sleep in one with their heads against 
the w-alls, and their feet converging to the centre. They 
were never used during a campaign. The only tent 
which took the place of all others, and was used uni- 
formly by the soldiers during the u-ar, was the shelter 
tent, whose model we have seen in France, 



8o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The regim-ent of American infantry differing entirely 
from the French regiment, it may be well to give in a 
few words its organization as it was fixed by an act of 
Congress, dated July 22, 1861, and unchanged during 
the war. 

The regiment is, really, merely a battalion of ten com- 
panies. The staff is composed of a colonel, a lieutenant- 
colonel, a major, an adjutant, a quartermaster, two sur- 
geons, with the right to add a chaplain. The major is 
not, as he is in France, an administrative ofBcer, he is 
the deputy of the lieutenant-colonel, as the latter is the 
deputy of the colonel. Whether at drill or under fire, 
he more specially has charge of the left of the regiment, 
as the lieutenant-colonel has of the right, both looking 
out for the prompt execution of orders. 

The adjutant keeps the regimental books, prepares 
the reports, files away the orders of the superior offi- 
cers, countersigns those of the colonel, and receives the 
official communications of the subaltern officers, which 
must be addressed to him. In the military hierarchy, 
it is the rule that every communication of an inferior to 
a superior must pass through the hands of the ad- 
jutant. 

The quartermaster has charge of the transportation, 
the camp equipage, and furniture and requirements, of 
which he keeps the accounts and makes the reports. 
Under him the administration of the subsistence is 
represented in the regiment by a commissary sergeant. 
He is, moreover, assisted by a quartermaster sergeant, 
as the adjutant is by the sergeant-major. 

Each company is composed of one captain, one first 
lieutenant, one second lieutenant, five sergeants, eight 
corporals, two drummers or fifers, one teamster, and 
from sixty-four to eighty-two privates. The whole num- 
ber of men in a regiment is, therefore : officers, thirty- 



FROM NEW YORK TO WASHINGTON. 8 1 

seven ; non-commissioned officers and soldiers, from 
805 (minimum) to 985 (maximum). 

This was the organization of the Fifty-fifth New 
York. Its composition was of a very mixed kind. The 
recruiting had opened its ranks to men of all nationali- 
ties. The French were a majority in six companies. 
The sojourn in a strange land had not altered their 
character. Their merits and their defects were the 
same in America as in France. Only they were less 
subject to discipline, and the performance of what 
was required of them in service depended less upon 
their sense of duty than upon the national vanity which 
led them to exalt themselves and to underrate others. 
In reviews and in brigade drills, where they attracted 
attention, they made a fine appearance, and manoeuvred 
together and with precision. Under fire, where nobody 
saw them, they did neither better nor worse than the 
others. 

After the French, the Germans were the more nu- 
merous in the Fifty-fifth. Nearly all the companies had 
more or less of them in their ranks. Company H was 
entirely composed of them. Good soldiers, prompt in 
obedience, animated with good-will, and conspicuous 
for their fine bearing, they always did their duty well 
upon the field of battle as in camp. 

Company K was composed entirely of Irishmen, com- 
manded by three American officers, drawn from the 
nursery of the Seventh New York militia. The Irish 
have two prevailing faults, uncleanliness and a tendency 
to drunkenness. On inspection, their uniforms were 
seldom without spots or their bearing without fault. 
When whiskey was introduced into the camp clandes- 
tinely, it was in the Irish quarter that the officer of the 
guard first found it. The most severe punishments 
availed nothing. But, on the other hand, they were 



82 FOUR YEARS WITIi THE P(3T0MAC ARMY. 

fine fighters. When they were under fire, the spots on 
their uniforms disappeared under powder or blood ; — 
good fellows, after all, indefatigable, enthusiastic, and 
always ready for a joke or a fight. 

I had, besides, in my regiment a small number of 
Spaniards, young men, intelligent, sober, reserved, of 
fine bearing and of good conduct ; and a few Italians, 
poor soldiers. 

Finally, the tenth company, which had not yet joined 
us, was composed of Americans. Recruited at random, 
poorly commanded, not disciplined, very little drilled, 
we found it much behind the others. We had to fur- 
nish it with instructors ; both officers and non-commis- 
sioned officers needed instructors as much as the 
soldiers, and the company never emerged from its rela- 
tive inferiority. This is, however, a special instance, 
which is of no value for judging the American sol- 
dier. Experience has proved that he was not infe- 
rior to any other, and in certain respects he has shown 
himself superior to many, having accomplished the 
greatest results, without enjoying the adv^antages which 
are reserved to military nations, to whom peace never 
ceases to be a preparation for war. If the United 
States had had in i860 a regular army of one hundred 
and fifty thousand men, the rebellion would not prob- 
ably have lasted six months. 

To complete the sketch of the Fifty-fifth, I must men- 
tion here an anomaly, which had come to us from the 
militia service, and from which we could not be freed 
until after a campaign. I mean a company of Zouaves in 
the regiment. Their uniform was precisely that of the 
French Zouaves, and of which they presented besides 
all the characteristics. I do not know whether I should 
attribute this peculiarity to the soldierly traditions 
which had crossed the Atlantic during the Crimean and 



FROM NZ- v::j: t: -v.\>Hrs"Giox. S3 






non-commiss: r .—.:.: :.:... _ r 

Crimea, and . 

as instructor. ^ . _~ . _ 

The Zouaves of the Fi;:r . 1 

ing the life of one uniform, thi: - : r r .:r :: 
paign. The State had fumif r 

laced jackets, their close vest: , f . 

their leather shoes, and the re_ r 

blue waistbands. When the - 

newed, the government verr _ .- 

tion uniform. It was the ^ e 

red pantaloons, and the bl _ r . ^ vcor 

the Fifty-fifth had to wear ::; 

The regulation uniform W2.r e 

army, with the insignia tc _ : -7; . .. .s 

of the service, and the ran^ 

The great ^•ariet}- of uniforms which marks the Euro- 
pean armies is really more pleasant to look at than it is 
useful It pleases the eye, and adds to the brilliancy 
of public ceremonies in time of peace, but in time of 
war of what use is it ? The time will come when the 
militar}- authorities will free themselves from all that 
medley and economize on the expense. 

In the United States we have carried on an arduous 
war without shakos, without helmets, without bearskin 
hats, without breastplates, without lace, and it seems to 
me that we have nevertheless succeeded. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FORMATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 

The brigade of General Peck — Surroundings at Washington — Regi- 
ments of cavalry — Batteries of artillery — Grand review — The 
Orleans princes — Lincoln and McClellan — Summer storm — Gen- 
eral Buell — Inspections — The defences to the south of the Potomac 
— Arlington, and the Lee family — General Wadsworth at Upton 
Hill — Blenker's division — Movements of the enemy upon the upper 
Potomac. 

The regiments, which were arriving continually at 
Washington, were not yet in condition to put into the 
field against the enemy. They might do very well for 
defending the capital behind intrenchments, but a very 
small part of them were fit to enter at once upon a 
campaign. Recruited in haste, dressed in the same 
way, they were hurried on as soon as they reached the 
regimental number. They had everything to learn, 
drill, marchings, service, discipline, and very few non- 
commissioned officers to instruct them, even supposing 
the officers capable of doing it, which was rarely the 
case. Such was the principal cause of the inaction in 
which the months of autumn and winter passed away. 
There were a great many men, but few soldiers. The 
affair of Bull Run had served as a lesson. Before re- 
suming offensive operations, a real army must be formed. 
That, in fact, was what we endeavored to do. 

We were not far from the enemy. The stimulant 
was not wanting, and we were continually on the alert. 

The regimental camp was scarcely formed, and camp 
duty commenced, than we had a night alarm. Every 
©ne was asleep, except the guard and the sentinels, 



FORMATION OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. 85 

when suddenly the long roll, the American alarm, was 
heard at a distance. This alarm signal, promptly re- 
peated, came nearer and nearer. In a moment we 
were under arms, the regiment in line of battle in 
front of the flag, the first sergeants lantern in hand, 
the officers with revolver in belt. We were conscious, 
in the silence, that there was a great swarming of men ; 
ligfhts moved about in the darkness, and we heard the 
hurried gallop of the orderlies as they passed and re- 
passed over the road. We awaited orders ; time went 
on, and the orders did not come. Finally, we learned 
the cause of all the stir. Two Wisconsin regiments, 
encamped in the neighborhood, had just been sent to 
Chain Bridge, a bridge crossing the Potomac above 
Georgetown, where some reports had been received of 
the concentration of the enemy. That did not concern 
us ; we returned to our tents to resume our broken 
sleep. These alarms were renewed from time to time, 
showing more zeal than experience. 

A few days after the incident above mentioned, we 
were attached to a brigade organized under the com- 
mand of General Peck. It was composed of four regi- 
ments, — the Fifty-fifth and Sixty-second New York, 
the Sixth New Jersey, and the Thirteenth Pennsyl- 
vania, — forming a force of about three thousand five 
hundred men. 

General Peck had served in the Mexican War as 
an officer, after which he had abandoned a military 
career, to follow a business and political life. This 
was the case as to the greater part of our generals. 
On putting on the uniform again, he found it necessary 
to brush up his military knowledge. A capable com- 
mander, and, moreover, a conscientious man, so en- 
tirely free from all pretence that when he came for 
the first time to assist at the drilling of my regiment 



86 FOLTl \"EARS VnTH THE P<3T0MAC ARMY. 

he himself wished to wait a little, " to pick himself 
up," he said, adding in a loud voice, before the men, 
that he had not given a command for more than ten 
vears. ^Most men would have thought the disclosure 
undesirable. 

The colonel commanding the Sixty-second was a 
New York lawj^er without any idea of the duties of 
his new position. He was lacking in the most ele- 
mentary' knowledge of them, and he did not seem to 
take the trouble to acquire them. His regiment was 
encamped on the grounds of an elegant villa, where he 
had installed himself unceremoniously. He was a hand- 
some man, and passed the most of his time at Wash- 
ington, where his tall figure displayed well his uniform 
and the spread eagles of his shoulder-straps. He left 
the care of drill to a special instructor. As to disci- 
pline, he bad ideas quite peculiar, declaring himself, on 
principle, opposed to punishment, because, said he, 
" punishment degrades a soldier." 

One can easily imagine the result of such a system. 
Insubordination reigned amongst the men, discord 
amongst the officers, the regimental government was 
full of intriguing, and the regiment, which, in other 
hands, would have been as good as any, was left to 
look out for itsel£ A bad neighborhood, which sub- 
jected our sentinels, more than once, to insults which 
it was ^necessary to punish ourselves, or see them go 
unpunished. I cite these facts, to show what obsta- 
cles had to be surmounted to reach a good organi- 
zation of the army. We reached that point, but it 
took time. 

The Thirteenth Pennsylvania had more than the 
maximum number of men, so that it was deprived of 
two supplementary' companies. It was in good relative 
condition, under the command of an influential politi- 



P?K3L\TIOX OF THE PjTOMAC ARM^". J>7 

cian of Pittsburg, a boon companion, rojr.i-:i.^ei and 
large in girth, who had no objection to expos:::ig himself 
to fire, but who was not yet ashamed to protect him- 
self from the showers from heaven, by an umbrella, 
under which I found him, one day, going around camp, 
caring nothing for what any one might say. 

The Sixth New Jersey did not remain in the brigade, 
its place being taken by the Xinet\*-third Penn5yl\-ania. 

The first care of General Peck, on taking comniand. 
was to establish uniformity- of drill, and to fix the 
time at six hours a day : in the morning the company 
and the platoon drill ; in the afternoon battalion drill 
and field duty. This was nothing new to the FiftA-fifth, 
but it \\-as very different A\ith the other re^ments, A 
French lieutenant, belonging to a Wisconsin regiment, 
told me that they had not a captain capable of com- 
manding a company, and that the colonel looked on 
nar\'ely at the platoon drill, book in hand, in order to 
understand the meaning of the commands. This did 
not prevent his being sent across the Potomac, a few 
days later. The question was asked what could he do 
in face of the enemy. Moreover, we were not so far 
away at Meridian Hill that we could not hear dis- 
tinctly the sound of the cannon. Ver}- often we were 
drilling to the sound of the artillery. 

This proximity to the enemy could not fail to cause 
those who remarked it to see in wh.U a strange man- 
ner camp duty was performed, or. rather, was not per- 
formed. One incident will give a good idea of it. 

On September 20, the command of the grand guard 
of the brigade devolved upon the major of the Fifty- 
fifth, an officer zealous in all the details of the 
service, which he had learned in the ranks of the X,a- 
tional Guard at Stnisbourg. The lieutenant of the 
company of Zouaves was sent, during the night, to 



SS FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

make the grand rounds, and he stated in his report, the 
next morning, that he had entered the camps of twelve 
regiments, without being stopped, or even challenged, 
walking around freely everywhere with his men. In 
the SLxty-second New York, he had found seven senti- 
nels asleep, rolled up in their blankets. Finally, what 
seems hardly credible, he went into the deserted tent 
of the colonel of the Nineteenth Indiana, whence he 
carried off the flag of the regiment, without any one's 
being present to oppose it. The flag was sent to Gen- 
eral Peck, to be returned to the regiment, which, per- 
haps, had not noticed its absence. I trust matters went 
on differently on the other side of the Potomac. If not, 
it must be acknowledged that at that period the secu- 
rity of the capital depended less upon the protection 
of its defenders than upon the unskilfulness of the 
assailants. 

On our side of the river, near the camp covering 
Georgetown and Washington, not an enemy was seen. 
This portion of the country is the most picturesque 
that one can imagine. The landscape is charming, 
full of variety, abounding in agreeable surprises. Great 
woods crown the summits of steep slopes, concealing 
the ravines under their thick shade, leaning over the 
brawling waters of Rock Creek, which falls into the 
Potomac, a little farther down. Here a mill, con- 
cealed in a narrow valley, there a bridge thrown boldly 
across the torrent from one rock to another. Farther 
along, a farm, with its fowls cackling, its fields of maize 
yellow in the sunlight ; or a villa, with its green lawn, 
its orchards full of fruit, its gardens full of flowers. 
Everywhere, nature fruitful, calm, smiling, in full sight 
of camps formed for destruction, noisy, menacing. A 
thrilling contrast, an elegant protest of peace against 
the war so roughly invading its domain. 



FORMATIOX C»F THE POTO^L\C ARM\-. S9 

Under the great trees along the roads, the white 
tents showed the cavalr}' camps, with wider inter\"als 
than those of the infantn,-, and distributed over a 
greater extent of country. Most of the regiments 
were yet in process of formation. The men, who were 
to be armed, equipped, and mounted at Washington, ar- 
rived there, sometimes, without even uniforms. It is 
e\-ident that the greater portion of them were not 
horsemen, and knew nothing about taking care of a 
horse. Many of their officers knew scarcely more. 
They had obtained their commission by contributing 
freely from their purses for the recruiting of their 
companies. That was a good enough title. Xoihing 
more could be asked. 

I knew a retired merchant of New York, filled with 
the vanity of wearing the uniform, who spent twenty 
thousand dollars to raise a regiment of cavalry, of 
which he was, of course, commissioned colonel. His 
camp was near us ; he was never there. On the other 
hand, he displayed his uniform continually on the 
sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue and in the bar- 
rooms of the great hotels. He was present at all the 
receptions at the White House, at all the evening par- 
ties of the ministers, always most attentive to the 
wives of the high officials and of the senators. Radi- 
cally incapable of commanding his regiment, much less 
of leading it into battle, but sustained by the double 
power of money and of political influence, he was nom- 
inated brigadier-general, and appointed afterwards to 
guard some empty barracks, in a post evacuated by the 
enemy. This was his share of glorv, and, without ever 
having drawn his sabre from the scabbard, he returned 
home, to enjoy in peace the delight of being able to 
write the title of " General " upon his visiting-cards. 

These pasteboard colonels generally took good care 



90 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

to have a real lieutenant-colonel, to whom, in fact, fell 
the command of the regiment, and if the major was 
also a capable officer there was not much to complain 
of. But, if a regiment of infantry can be quickly pre- 
pared for the field, it is far otherwise with the cavalry. 
Cavalry cannot be improvised. Our experience already 
proved that. In the very beginning of the war, the 
organization of that arm met with a serious obstacle in 
the marked desire of General Scott to do without it. 
The commander-in-chief, who could no longer mount a 
horse, and who at that time arranged everything in his 
cabinet, had formed his own theory in that respect. 
Injurious delays arose from that cause. 

The enemy, on the contrary, favored in every way 
the formation of bodies of cavalry. The rich young 
men of the South themselves provided the expense of 
their equipments. They brought to the army excellent 
horses, which they already knew how to manage, and 
they did not disdain to enter the ranks, followed often 
by a negro servant, who took his master's place in the 
disagreeable duties of the business. 

These detachments, well mounted and equipped, 
composed of young men alert and brave, were very use- 
ful to the Confederate army. They acted as advance 
parties and scouts, and gathered exact information as 
to our movements. They protected their convoys, and 
carried off our wagons. They covered their own lines, 
and captured our pickets, appearing where they were 
least expected, disappearing before their retreat could 
be cut off, seldom returning without booty or without 
prisoners. It is well known what good service the 
enemy's cavalry rendered him in more important oper- 
ations, in the bold raids which gave renown to the 
name of Stuart and others. This superiority lasted 
nearly two years, — as long as the men and the horses 



FORMATION OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. 9 1 

— and until the clay when our horsemen, inured to 
war, and better commanded, were able to conquer 
where the chances were equal, and, as veterans, to 
defeat everywhere the adversaries against whom, as 
novices, they had not been able to hold their 
ground. 

The cavalry regiments consisted of four or six squad- 
rons. Each squadron consisted of two companies, 
each having three officers and ninety-two non-commis- 
sioned officers and men. 

Besides the drill, a certain number of infantry regi- 
ments were employed in constructing detached re- 
doubts, the system of fortification adopted to defend 
the federal capital, especially to the north of the Po- 
tomac, where the enemy could with difficulty find his 
way. Under the direction of engineer officers, the men 
performed this duty very well. 

The first occasion which was offered to me to 
appreciate, with any correctness, what progress the 
organization of the army had already made, was a 
grand review of cavalry and artillery, by General 
JMcClellan. It took place on the 24th of September, 
in the field east of Washington, behind the Capitol. 
At that time we were not yet blase on military parades, 
which became more and more frequent as the troops 
became better prepared to figure in them to advantage, 
by their bearing and by their instruction in the evolu- 
tions of the line. For the present, manoeuvring was 
not yet on the programme. The movements were con- 
fined to passing in review and defiling. 

The weather was magnificent. The people thronged 
upon the drill grounds, and admired, without reserve, 
nine batteries of artillery, each having six pieces, fifty- 
four guns of different models, mostly new, everything 
in perfect order. The men appeared as well as the 



92 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

"material," each one at his post, irreproachable in 
bearing. 

Three thousand cavalry were in line, well dressed, 
not so well mounted, betraying their inexperience in 
the formation in column, and defiling. 

Quite a large number of superior oflficers had ob- 
tained permission to witness the review, and received 
invitations to join the staff of the general-in-chief. 
Amidst these uniforms without embroidery, but se- 
verely military, three horsemen in civil dress naturally 
drew to themselves the attention of all. These three 
privileged citizens, whose names were asked, were the 
Prince de Joinville and his two nephews, the Count de 
Paris and the Duke de Chartres, scions of a dethroned 
royalty. The young princes came to offer their ser- 
vices to the federal government, and to follow in a 
republican army the career of arms which had already 
led one of them to the field of battle in Italy. The 
calling of a soldier is the inalienable apanage of French 
princes, the only one of which revolutions cannot de- 
prive them. 

The men of my generation who have roamed about 
the world have witnessed strange reverses of fortune. 
As a child I was rocked to sleep to the recital of the 
great imperial epic ; I had seen Charles X. in all the 
splendor of royalty, of divine right ; the Duchess of 
Angouleme, whose sad features appeared to bear the 
indelible imprint of the misfortunes of her infancy ; the 
Duchess de Berry, the youth and joy of that aging 
court ; and the Duke of Bordeaux, the hope of the dy- 
nasty, to whom I had been presented in the midst of 
his playthings, as a future defender of his throne. But 
the throne had crumbled away before I was old enough 
to hold a sword. 

As a young man I had seen the king, Louis Philippe, 



FORMATION OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. 93 

the crowned choice of the bourgeoisie, pass in review 
the national guard of his good city of Paris, surrounded 
by a family numerous and brilliant, destined, as it 
seemed then, to protect and perpetuate the new mon- 
archy. But a stroke of the paw of the lion populace 
had precipitated the citizen king into exile, as it had 
done before the legitimate king. 

One day, passing along the foot of the walls of the 
castle of Ham, I sought to discover upon the walls the 
silhouette of Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, who 
was then a captive within. " A head without a brain," 
the wise ones of that time said. 

A man grown, I witnessed during the space of three 
months the melodrama played in France in 1848, hiss- 
ing the bad actors, who struggled upon the shaking 
boards of power until the curtain fell upon a bloody 
ending, to rise upon a parody of military dictatorship. 

From that abortive dictatorship I had witnessed the 
birth of the empire, and the captive of Ham, crowned 
by universal suffrage, seat himself in triumph upon the 
throne once more restored. 

All those great shipwrecks have scattered their d/- 
bris throughout the world. I have met many of them 
in my wandering life. I have deciphered the epitaph 
of Charles X. upon an obscure flagstone in a Francis- 
can convent in Goritz. I have paid homage to the ill- 
fortune of the Count de Chambord, the disinherited 
heir of the kings of France, in that old castle of 
Frohsdorff, where the daughter of Louis XVI. con- 
tinued to seek in prayer a relief to the bitterness of 
undeser\-ed sorrow. I have been the guest of the 
Duchess de Berry, that princess with heroic inspira- 
tions, the woman with charming disposition, whose 
quiet serenity neither age nor misfortunes ever altered. 
And near her, have I not seen at Venice that Arch- 



94 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

duchess of Austria who was the mother of the king of 
Rome, and who had shared the finest throne in the 
world with the greatest captain of the century, still 
peevishly complaining at her ill-fortune. In England I 
have been received by the prince who would have been 
regent of France, under the roof where Louis Philippe 
died. 

Amongst these great waifs of the revolutions, how 
many celebrities eclipsed, how many powerful fallen 
ones have I met, ^^ eating the bitter bread of the 
stranger!'' And now, in this distant land where the 
Duke of Orleans had wandered a proscribed man, I 
found again his grandsons, proscribed as he had been. 
In former days I had been presented to the Prince de 
Joinville, at the time when he visited New York on the 
Belle Poule, which he commanded. We were young 
then. Teinpora vmtantnr. — The times change, and we 
change with them. 

At this review, where I saw for the first time the 
young prince, there was seen a very simple open car- 
riage, mingling on terms of democratic equality with 
the other carriages loaded with spectators. And yet it 
carried Mr. Lincoln and his family. It was to be ob- 
served that the eyes of the people were not upon the 
President of the Republic. The man upon whom more 
than upon any other depended the safety or the ruin of 
the country at that hour of supreme peril, upon whom 
weighed the highest responsibility, remained unnoticed 
in the crowd, except by those in his immediate vicinity, 
without guard and without attendants. All the atten- 
tion was turned upon that young general, with the calm 
eye, with the satisfied air, who moved around, followed 
by an immense staff, to the clanking of sabres and the 
acclamations of the spectators. 

Oh, the vanity of popular enthusiasm ! On account 



FORMATION OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. 95 

of one fortunate battle, fought at the head of a few 
thousand men, General McClellan was raised to the 
highest position. He was the idol of the moment. 
The popular voice called him the second Napoleon. 
He who by his political falterings and his military inca- 
pacity was destined to aggravate the dangers, prolong 
the trials, make heavy the sacrifices of the burdened 
country, — to him was decreed in advance an apotheo- 
sis. To him who was destined to lead the nation to 
its triumph with an immovable patriotism, with unwav- 
ering devotion to the best interests of the Union, — 
who, his task accomplished, was to give his life to his 
country and die a martyr to liberty, — to him the 
passer-by forgot to raise his hat in salute. 

On the morning of the 26th of September the regiment 
broke camp in obedience to an order received the even- 
ing before. The brigade was sent three or four miles to 
the front, in the neighborhood of Tenallytown. The 
road was good and pleasant. It followed the meander- 
ings of Rock Creek, in the shade of the willows and 
poplars, then passed through the forest to reach Swartz' 
farm, where we pitched our new camp. The men kept 
step, while singing the Marseillaise, or the Chant des 
Girondins, hymns unknown to the echoes of those 
parts, which repeated them for the first time, and prob- 
ably for the last. 

Our camping-ground was not so good as that at 
Meridian Hill. The ground was hilly, uneven, with 
abrupt slopes. We made the best arrangements pos- 
sible, and the camp was established before night. It 
was well for us that we did so. 

The sun had set behind a curtain of black clouds 
slowly creeping over the horizon. On the extinction 
of the fires, and when the lights were put out in camp, 
the lightning flashed out in the heavens ; when the 



96 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

drums became silent the thunder began to roll. The 
days directly after the equinox had passed, but we 
lost nothing by waiting. The first messengers of the 
storm were sudden gusts of wind, sweeping impetuously 
through the ravines, bounding along the hills, threaten- 
ing to uproot the trees and to carry away our tents. 
Those asleep were quickly awakened. To the roar- 
ings which filled the air, to the tearful moanings 
of the forest, to the snapping of the tent flies, the 
clear sound of the picket pins, struck with hurried 
blows to strengthen our frail shelter of cloth, replied 
promptly. 

We hurried still more eagerly to the task, when the 
heavens appeared to burst over our heads, as if the 
bottom of a vast reservoir had suddenly given way, 
A perfect sheet of water fell upon us. Every one dis- 
appeared immediately under his tent. The sentinels 
alone continued upon their beats, regarding the 
heavens, contemplating the storm, and directing their 
attention to protecting the locks of their guns with the 
skirts of their cloaks. We had, as yet, but uncertain 
notions as to the strength of the tents, and each one 
asked himself if they would be thrown to the ground 
under the weight of the deluge, or be driven away by 
the force of the wind. 

I said that the ground was uneven and hilly. In a 
few minutes the streams began to run in all directions, 
increasing, as we looked at them, and rushing in small 
torrents through all the windings and upon all the 
slopes of the ground. The tempest, which had threat- 
ened our tents from the top only, now invaded them 
from beneath. Every one was compelled to defend 
himself the best he could against this new form of 
attack. There were dikes raised by hand, in default 
of spades, and ditches dug with the bayonet, instead of 



FORMATION OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. 97 

with the pick. Thus, by the flashes of the lightning, 
the workmen appeared one by one or two by two, 
according to the urgency of the case, but this time 
with naked feet, stripped to the waist, and consoling 
themselves, over a forced bath, by defying the storm to 
reach their garments. 

The night was rough, but left us nearly unharmed, 
with the exception, however, of the second surgeon of 
the regiment. The whirlwind appeared to be particu- 
larly directed towards his tent. He defended it ob- 
stinately, stopping up all the openings, repairing the 
breaches, tightening the cords, striving with the energy 
of one who fights pro aris et focis. Unhappily, the 
rain soaked the earth, and the picket pins, shaken fu- 
riously without any intermission, were moved further 
and further in their sockets of mud. The moment 
came when everything gave way. The doctor was 
conquered, but exasperated. He had not been able 
to keep his tent standing, he resolved to defend it 
fallen. He could be perceived, by the flash of the 
lightning, with uncovered head, hair streaming, dis- 
daining to call for reenforcements, plunging into the 
cloth, like a sailor taking a reef in his sail, covering 
his trunk and his camp-bed, holding it there with both 
feet and hands, and defying the heavens, which, doubt- 
less, to render homage to so heroic a resistance, closed 
at last their sluice-gates, and calmed the unchained 
winds. 

The sun shone brightly the next morning, and the 
atmosphere was clear. But, instructed by experience, 
the soldiers nevertheless finished carefully the works 
begun during the night for the protection of the 
camp. 

At Camp Holt (the name given to the new encamp- 
ment of the brigade, I do not know why), the service 



gS FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTO^^IAC ARMY. 

began to be performed with more uniformity and regu- 
larity. We were there connected with two other bri- 
gades to form a division under the command of General 
Buell, who was soon after appointed to command an 
army in Kentucky, and, in the month of April follow- 
ing, to play at Shiloh, in favor of Grant, the part that 
Bliicher played at Waterloo, in favor of Wellington. 
In September, 1861, he was yet only a brigadier-gen- 
eral of volunteers. In the regular army he held the 
rank of major, and, before the war, performed the duties 
of assistant adjutant-general. He was a valuable officer 
for the government in the present circumstances. 
Perfectly conversant with all the details of the ser- 
vice, very strict in discipline, he caused the organiza- 
tion of the new troops and the instruction of the soldier 
to advance with rapid steps. He established his head- 
quarters a little apart, in the midst of a field surrounded 
by woods. He slept there under a tent, giving his offi- 
cers the example of habits of activity and frugality, 
most suitable to a soldier's life. As he liked to look 
out for everything for himself, it was not unusual to see 
him coming unexpectedly into our regiments, followed 
by an orderly only, seeing whether every one did his 
duty and whether his orders were strictly obeyed. No 
negligence escaped his inquisitive eye, and everything 
was required to be done according to orders. Cleanli- 
ness of camp was as necessary as punctuality on drill, 
the bearing of the officers was considered as well as the 
vigilance of the sentinels. 

The division of Buell was covered by a line of pickets 
whose duty was performed as if with the enemy in 
front. The picket line described an irregular curve 
through the woods and fields, across the roads and 
the water-courses, in the midst of a picturesque coun- 
try, of which those who have seen only that part of 



PORMATIOX OF -'ziZ. I 71:1..: .-^17: z/g 

pretty coantiy-boases, scatterel ever the --^'s Tsried 
the landscape. Bat they al' t desened. 

The disagreeable proxiiE-t. ivs bring- 

ing with- it some rob'i . gardens, 

and exciting exagger :ae inhabi- 

tants awa\-. '^^'r—- -_--__; 

generaily De_ 

tore. In the neics, we r. t z -. 

posts, who added very l.ii.r : 
landscape. The vedettes passe _ 

their guns on their shoulders. The rest rrs 

slept, or conversed tranquilly ar; -ip-rti. to 

provide which they had pient*.- . : it bini. 

Others, smoking sflently, — :: v.-i: — f 

their families, c :.::"t" .^ 

them again, of thr . ;: _ _._ 

tion. But this was :be smi :er The 

soldier is no dreamer. T-"e activity oi iiis life does 
not leave him the time. The sensibilit\" is quickly 
dulled in a life left to chance, day by day, and where 
the evening, often, has no morrow. His unconcern 
arises from the uselessness of foresight He knows 
not his fate, and so enjoys the present, as well as 
possible, not disquieting himself as to the hour to 
come. 

Near our camp, back of the Swartz farm, some forti- 
tications had been commenced, which we supposed we 
were to finish. But it was not to be. The usual drills 
were suspended only for re\4ews, and inspections be- 
came more and more frequent. One of them was the 
occasion of a ven.^ flattering mention of the FiftA^-fifth. 

Colonel Marcy, chief of staff of the general-in-chief, 
had been ordered to inspect all the volunteer forces 



lOO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

encamped north of the Potomac. The Count de Paris 
and the Duke de Chartres, attached as captains to the 
staff of General McClellan, accompanied him. Their 
national amour propre did not suffer on account of the 
appearance of the French regiment. " The regiment," 
say the journals, quoting the report of the inspection, 
" deserves a special mention. Nearly all the officers are 
French. Many have served in Europe. The men are 
principally French, and, in bearing and instruction, as 
in discipline, have no superiors, even amongst our regu- 
lar troops." 

After the inspection and the review, which is the 
usual conclusion, General Peck, Colonel Marcy, and the 
princes assembled under my tent, where champagne 
prolonged the visit. At that time, a basket of cham- 
pagne might yet be found under the camp-bed of a 
colonel. 

Our proximity to Washington, the good condition of 
the roads, the beauty of the landscape caused our camp 
to be the favorite resort of visitors. So we did not want 
for company. There were high officials, politicians, 
members of Congress or of the diplomatic corps, for- 
eign officers come to offer their services or simply to 
study the formation of our army, newspaper corre- 
spondents, and all of them not infrequently accompanied 
by ladies curious to witness our drills or our reviews. 

It was altogether different to the south of the Po- 
tomac, where the enemy was found. The bridges 
were guarded, and no one could cross them without a 
special permit. On that side, our line of defence 
formed an arc of a circle, resting its two extremities 
upon the river ; one extremity at Alexandria, a few 
miles below Washington, the other covering Chain 
Bridge, a few miles abote. It was composed of a chain 
of detached works, more important and better armed 



FORMATION OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. ID I 

than the redoubts raised on the northern side of the 
riv'er. These forts were on the summits of a series of 
heights presenting great natural advantages. A few 
months before, they were generally covered with mag- 
nificent forests, of which the axe had already made 
immense abatis, a very efficacious breakwater against 
the human wave of a regular attack. Within a nearer 
radius, other works were thrown up, defending the 
heights of Arlington, opposite the city, and covering 
the bridge-head which protected Long Bridge. 

The estate of Arlington, at that time, belonged 
to General Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate army. 
The Lee family is historical in the United States, and 
was not without distinction in England. The first 
of the name who went to America was Richard Lee, 
who emigrated in the time of Charles I., a strong par- 
tisan, and devoted to the Stuarts, like the greater 
part of the Virginians of his time, and against whom 
Cromwell had to send an expedition, which did not 
reduce the royalist colony to submission. The de- 
scendants of Richard Lee, who had preserved after 
him an influential position, played an important part in 
the War of the Revolution, and brought to their name a 
consideration higher than ever in the American Repub- 
lic, although the instincts of their race were much 
more aristocratic than democratic. 

In 1861, Robert E. Lee was a colonel in the regular 
army of the United States. A son of General Henry 
Lee, he was attached to the engineers, on graduating 
from West Point, and had served in the Mexican War 
with a distinction rewarded by several promotions. 
Afterwards he was put in command of the military 
school. Finally, in the month of April, 1861, he had 
resigned to attach himself to the fortunes of the South- 
ern Confederacy. 



I02 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Arlington, where he usually resided, has a lordly 
appearance. A great park, shaded by magnificent 
trees, surrounded the residence, whose style of archi- 
tecture had a prestige of age, much respected in 
America, where it is so rarely found. Each one of the 
two fronts is adorned with a wide veranda, whose 
high columns support the projecting roof. From the 
northern one the view is admirable. The majestic 
course of the Potomac through the plain is lost from 
view in the gray horizon of Alexandria ; then, the 
whole city of Washington, with its great monuments 
and its small houses ; Georgetown, rising toward the 
left, like an amphitheatre ; lastly, as a frame to the 
panorama, the line of blue hills cut through at the 
right by the immense dome of the Capitol, raising 
toward heaven the statue of armed Liberty. 

On September 29, when I visited Arlington for the 
first time, the imprint of the war had already altered 
its aspect. The dwelling of Lee had become the head- 
quarters of General McDowell, now commanding a 
division in the army of which he had been general-in- 
chief, the army corps not being yet organized. The 
horses of the mounted orderlies, saddled and bridled, 
impatiently pawed the ground around the trees to 
which they were hitched. The tents of the guard and 
of the servants of the staff were set up in the gardens, 
trampled over everywhere by men and animals. The 
park roads were deeply furrowed by the continual pas- 
sage of artillery and ammunition wagons. Through 
the broken-down fences, the hedges dug up in the 
fields, in the woods, and upon the turf, a number of 
abandoned camps, where the fires still smoked, showed 
by a thousand remains the place where the regiments 
had been, and which they had left early in the 
morning. 



FORMATIOX OF THE POTOMAC ARMY. IO3 

A Strong division of twelve thousand men had in fact 
moved in advance, in consequence of a retrograde 
movement of the enemy, who had the evening before 
evacuated his advanced positions at Upton Hill and 
Munson Hill. It did not take us long to reach the 
principal column. It followed a narrow and hilly road, 
sometimes sunk between high slopes, sometimes cross- 
ing swampy places on an embankment. The artillery 
wagons at times encumbered the road, stopped by some 
obstacle or by some accident. The men marched on 
the sides of the roads, hurrying to close up the inter- 
vals in the ranks. 

A squadron of cavalry halted in a field marked the 
place where General Keyes had established his head- 
quarters in a covered cart, from which he sent his or- 
ders and watched the movements of his troops. Every 
one was in good spirits ; no one remained behind. 

When I reached Upton Hill, the brigade of General 
Wadsworth had already taken possession. General 
Wadsworth did not belong to the regular army. He 
had not served before, except on the staff of General 
McDowell, during the three months' campaign, so un- 
happily terminated by the disaster of Bull Run. He 
had a very large property in the State of New York, 
where his family was highly respected. When, at the 
commencement of the war, communication with Wash- 
ington was interrupted, he had hired a vessel, and loaded 
it with provisions at his own expense, and went with it 
himself, to better assure its arrival at Annapolis. This 
generous devotion to the cause of the Union recom- 
mended him to the favor of the government, for which, 
besides thus using his fortune, he was destined at a 
later day to lay down his life. 

I found General Wadsworth under the roof of the 
pillaged farmhouse. He was at that time fifty-four 



I04 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

years old, but the ardor of his patriotism serYed instead 
of youthful Yigor, and his moral energy supported with- 
out weakness the contrast between the rude camp life 
and the luxurious existence which had, up to that time, 
been his portion. A few broken stools were all there 
was left of the furniture. Some doors taken off their 
hinges served for tables ; some boards picked up in the 
garden answered for benches. The Confederates, who 
occupied the house the evening before, had written 
their names with charcoal upon the defaced walls of all 
the rooms. They had added, as soldiers usually do, 
rough sketches, among which the most frequent was 
the hanging of ^Ir. Lincoln. The legend was easily 
altered to make the representation that of the hanging 
of Mr. Jefferson Davis, which our soldiers did not fail 
to do. 

The house was surmounted by a cupola, the view 
from which was of the most varied character. In the 
gardens the stacks of arms were surrounded by soldiers 
lying on the ground or digging in the vegetable garden ; 
regiments were successively taking their positions in 
line ; a dozen cannon were in battery, the cannoneers in 
their places overlooking the valley, the officers examin- 
ing with their field glasses, the horizon covered with 
forests, the caissons in the rear, the teams on the inner 
slopes of the hill. In front the Leesburg road, upon 
which galloped here and there some staff officers fol- 
lowed by their orderlies, and the isolated hillock of 
INIunson Hill, from the top of which already floated the 
federal flag. When we arrived there, our men began 
their installation behind a circular line of intrenchments 
left unfinished by the enemy, by burning the half-rot- 
ten straw upon which the first occupants had slept. 
From this hill the rebels had been able to contemplate 
at their ease the dome of the Capitol, the object of 



FORiL\TION OF THE POTOilAC ARMY. IO5 

their desire in the land of Canaan which it was given ' 
thera to have a sight of, but which they never entered. 

At Bailey's Crossroads were massed several regi- 
ments, among which was the " Garibaldi Guard," hav- 
ing in it as many nationalities as companies ; a regiment 
poorly commanded by a Hungarian colonel, whose sus- 
picious career was destined to end in the penitentiary 
of Sing Sing. The French company wished to be trans 
ferred to the Fifty-fifth. The captain commanding it 
came himself to see me about it ; but it was too late. 
The War Department, fearing to open the door to new 
abuses, denied all requests of this kind, whether pre- 
sented by individuals or by bodies of men. This was 
the fate of a petition signed by twenty Anderson 
Zouaves, and presented by the Count de Paris to Gen- 
eral McClellan. 

From Bailey's Crossroads to the Seminar^', a large 
building for educational purposes, built upon the high- 
est point of the hills which surround Alexandria, nearly 
all the countr)' traversed by the road w-as covered by 
abatis. A few fortified points were \-isible at long dis- 
tances apart in front of the strongest works, of which 
I have already spoken- But the pickets, with their re- 
seni'es, lined the road the whole distance. On this side 
the movement was limited to connecting the ad\-ance 
positions with the right, by way of Munson Hill. 

The camps which we visited on our return were gen- 
erally well kept and in good order. We found there 
the German division of General Blenker, all covered 
with leaves, surrounded by little gardens with k^s, 
where the remembrances of VaUrland Vt^v^ abundantly 
watered with lager beer. 

The general had served in Europe. He had sen,-ed in 
Greece, in the Bavarian Legion, and later, in 1849, ^^ 
commanded a body of revolutionar)" troops in Germany. 



rob FOUR \~EARS WITH THE R>TOMaC AKMV, 

He received us under a great tent, which had e^•i- 
dently been designed for hospital service. It was 
double, of a bluish stuff, pleasant to the eye, and hav- 
ing a wall tent in front as a vestibule. There was the 
aid on dut\\ near whom was collected a numerous staff, 
composed of foreign officers, nearly all Germans. 

The demonstrative courtesy of General Blenker con- 
trasted singularly with the reserved manners of the 
American officers ol his rank. I saw him then for 
the first time, and it would have seemed that I 
was one of his most intimate friends. It was con- 
tinaally, "My dear colonrf, — my good comrade, — 
what a pleasure to see you here^" etc. His band, which 
was esrellent, regaled us with some choice selections 
from the Italian ripertaire. Some real champagne was 
served to usy upon a table loaded with fruit and delicious 
cake ; we witnessed afterwards the parade of a regiment 
of fine appearance, and apparently well instructed ; after 
which we took our leave, with many compliments and 
hand-shakings. 

The career of Blenker ^<± not correspond with the 
brilliancy of its commencement. He was not with 
the Armv of the Potomac on the Peninsula, was relieved 
from Ms ccMomand for acting according to his own will, 
in coettempt q£ military discipline prejudicial to the 
gO'Vemment, in porticMis of Mrginia, where it was de- 
sired to conciliate the pec^e: He died in the humble 
poi^tioct from whic^ the war had raised him, r^retting 
a forttme lost by allowing himself to be dazzled by its 
briTIgncy, — hurried, perhaps, to the tomb by the worst 
of griefs, acoMding to the po^ : " II ricordarsi del 
tempo felice^ nrfia misena.*^ 

In fine that pcwtion o£ the Army of the Potomac had 
at that tirae ^se advantage ov^er us <^ having beoi 
under fire. A few skirmishes, of little importancev but 



Tjie *T?ffii c3Diniir.!nriiiLffyr : r^r:' "•^^^fsrs. "siren. 
T-TTir?' -T- tiiQ£ serrace "wss i.: -:..:-- _ ^ r - r taae tig. it 

Cm mt renmrm to c 15 isrre reafx 



"3t -"rzirjfn: rcacnrt: :_ia. Tie 

:rLr3c "Bras £ " T-fif eneirr^ 

"srr^iri Isac .-...-_ - _ . _..-_" ire 'nr sia: 

-■sagTDes frC'tEU ici. Tae Ti t=°r- 52t psssed in. exuecnaiiaiL 
In tike evem^m:^. ^jieinsc". ? rcsjs^tiijer 

22. 1115 te^-t Ii "BTSia ".-. r-_ „ ^:_^. •■ _ -._: ._^i!': ri^it- 
sLZii T: 1zz.rier21.es 'w-ese st Gresr FiHsw ijr»3Ei "ifoe H'lxtln. 
tJEELit oc tbe rrreE. W TTr''n xh& Tmfgpg; t*sroire iesw liie nrri~s57- 
bLbrtj i^f thieir rmitancaonns "stes -riscTssez.. — ^ zzr trie 
chaDces "trere of an straci. st lisTbrex^. — :.zr D<e5C 
laeaiis oc cieiesice. Bfimt it SiBesnneG. to nnie t'1n:^!t uo QsninLiite 

. "- ; rrted pilan had been drs-Brz -p. I- . _ ; .- z 

readnkess, "WaS ai>3zrr all tfaie OTQers aESCTniniited to. TSiis 
•was stiictvv conf n'mei to.. Ti t ^ ' -. - f -srere reem- 

torced. stncx mstniictaoiiis "were z"-" -— zx toe "wioi-ie 

lin-e. "E.a ch m an received a ii"2sdred camidiges^ anc 

ilevc in Lis ciotbes, not kao'^wrni: "srhetiiier be iro«iijd be 

a"«"akeii'ed hx the soimd oif tri>e tmrnpet or of the £rini:- 

I remember trtar th^e nigtii "sras fine amd caTm. Tbe 



I08 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Stars shone in the heavens, in an atmosphere clear but 
not cold. The Great Bear descended slowly to the 
horizon. On looking carefully at it, I was surprised to 
count an eighth star, more brilliant than the others. 
An examination with a field glass soon showed that the 
supplementary star was a small fire balloon, sent up, 
doubtless, by the enemy as a signal. Innumerable fire- 
flies sparkled in the grass, as if the earth wished to 
reflect the scintillations of the stars. Nothing dis- 
turbed the silence, except a few distant gunshots, fired 
by some vedettes too easily alarmed. At daybreak it 
was seen that the enemy's column had retired as it had 
come, and everything returned to the usual order. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WINTER QUARTERS. 

Settled down at Tenallytown — Moonlight — Pay-day — A case of de- 
lirium tremens — Court-martial — General Keyes — Unfortunate af- 
fair of Ball's Bluff — Arrangements for winter — Otificers' mess — 
Flag presentation — President Lincoln at the table of the Fifty-fifth 
— Effects of the war around Washington. 

On October 9, McCall's division, about twelve thousand 
strong, crossed the Potomac to establish itself a few 
miles above Chain Bridge, in the direction of Leesburg. 
As a consequence of this movement, Peck's brigade 
was thrown out to occupy Tenallytown, an important 
position, which covers Georgetown, on the border of the 
District of Columbia. 

The village is built on a hill where five roads con- 
verge, three of which are highways. To the right, 
on the highest point. Fort Pennsylvania commands 
the plain. It was garrisoned by the Thirteenth Penn- 
sylvania. The Ninety-third Pennsylvania and the Six- 
ty-second New York had their camp further out, along 
the Rockville road. The Fifty-fifth was sent one mile 
to the left, near a strong demi-lune, armed with four 
thirty-two-pounders, and enclosed by a high palisade 
pierced for musketry. This work, built with care in 
a well chosen position, bore the name of Fort Gaines. 
Each one of my companies was sent successively to 
occupy this fort and become familiar with the use of 
artillery. 

Behind the camp were great forests, along which 
ran the road from Tenallytown to Chain Bridge. In 

109 



IIO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

front, the view extended a great distance. The eye 
could follow, over the woods which at that time beau- 
tified the valley, the course of the Potomac, whose 
waters were visible at various points. Beyond could 
be distinguished the movements of our most advanced 
forces, and in the distance the indistinct lines of the 
enemy were lost in the horizon. In front of us, be- 
tween the river and the Rockville road, arose, on the 
other side of the valley, a wooded hill, whose trees 
were fast disappearing. Three redoubts were built 
there, which, later on, were connected and formed 
one of the most important forts in the defence of the 
capital. 

It appeared, at first, as if we were not to remain 
long in that position. We had scarcely formed our 
camp when one evening an order came to hold our- 
selves ready to move at a moment's notice. The 
drums, which were at that moment beating the retreat, 
changed their tone. The men responded by hurrahs, 
and in a few minutes the companies were drawn up in 
position on the color line, when a counter-order was 
received. We were not to march till daylight. Every 
one returned to his tent under a rolling fire of pleas- 
antries. At half-past nine came a new order, to go 
without delay to Chain Bridge. Again the drums 
began to beat. Ten minutes later, a new counter- 
order by telegraph. Renewal of jokes in the ranks. 
At ten o'clock, a third order, this time not counter- 
manded, with instructions to leave only a dozen men 
with a sergeant to guard the camp, to take with us the 
two surgeons, leaving the care of the hospital to the 
hospital steward, and to take the four ambulances. 

At half-past ten we were on the road. It was our 
first night-march, and the orders appeared to indicate 
that it was not to be a simple military promenade. The 



WINTER QUARTERS. Ill 

morale of the men appeared to be excellent, and they 
would have cheerfully begun the march singing by 
the way, if orders had not been given to preserve 
strict silence in the ranks. We followed a crossroad, 
here plunging into the woods, there out again through 
the fields. Long streamers of clouds were covering the 
heavens, like the shreds of an immense torn curtain. 
Sometimes the moon appeared in the openings, her 
light glancing with thousands of reflections from the 
edges of the bayonets. Sometimes she disappeared, 
leaving in obscurity the regiment stretching out along 
the windings of the road like a fantastic serpent with 
blue scales. At midnight we halted near Chain Bridge. 

I do not know how this bridge derived its name. It 
has no chains about it, but is a wooden bridge on stone 
abutments. In front of Georgetown, the Potomac nar- 
rows suddenly and ceases to be navigable. The greater 
part of its bed is filled with sand covered by stones and 
rocks, dry during summer but over which the water 
rolls noisily in the winter. During the greater part 
of the year, the current, deep and rapid, is enclosed in 
the narrow channel it has worn on the Virginia side, 
under the last arch of the bridge. The Washington 
canal follows the Maryland bank upon a slope some- 
what elevated. The banks on both sides of the river 
rise into high hills, abrupt and rocky, generally cov- 
ered with thick woods. Some fortifications hastily 
built, but quite strong, defended the approaches along 
the Virginia heights. If they were taken the bridge 
itself was protected by a battery of heavy guns, half- 
way up the hill, and by two field pieces placed to sweep 
the bridge the whole length. 

The night passed without incident to us around the 
bivouac fires. Day broke in the midst of perfect tran- 
quillity, and the first order we received in the morning 



I 1 2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

was to return to camp, which we did, much disappointed. 
We were impatient at not yet being led under fire. If we 
had been able to look but a few months into the future, 
it is probable we would have accepted our lot much 
more cheerfully. 

Commencing from our arrival at Tenallytown, the 
line evolutions formed a part of the brigade drill, which 
we practised every day when the weather permitted. 
We had a large field in which to manoeuvre, where our 
four regiments could deploy in every direction, leaving 
out the companies detached idr service in the forts and 
for advance posts. But, as the season advanced, the 
weather became more and more uncertain. After the 
end of October cold and steady rains began to announce 
the approach of winter, and the service became more 
and more unpleasant. Nevertheless, the last fine days 
were put to good use, and General Buell was able to 
command the manoeuvres himself without correcting 
anything except errors of detail. 

On October 31, the regiment was vmstered for pay. 
The expression has no equivalent in French, because 
the thing itself does not exist in France. In the 
United States the system of paying the army is very 
defective. Neither the soldier nor the officer is paid 
except every two months, supposing payment is made 
regularly, which is not often the case during a cam- 
paign. The muster takes place the last day of the 
second month. It is as follows : After the inspection 
in detail of the companies, the mustering officer, who 
should be an inspector on the staff of one of the colo- 
nels or regimental commanders of the brigades, pro- 
ceeds himself with the roll-call, with open ranks, 
officers at their posts, non-commissioned officers and 
soldiers with arms at support. Each one answers to 
his name, and passes without command to order arms 



WINTER QUARTERS. II3 

and arms at ease, so that it may be seen that all the 
men present are upon the roll. Return is made on 
the roll of all men absent by desertion, temporary 
leave, or other cause, and the mustering officer after- 
wards himself makes sure of the presence of the men 
noted as forming the guard, or in the regimental hospi- 
tal. The rolls, being duly signed and certified to by the 
commanders of companies, are sent to him to be signed 
in his turn, after adding to the report a summary upon 
the condition of the men, their bearing, their discipline, 
etc. These rolls, made in quadruplicate, are disposed 
of as follows : one to the adjutant-general at Washing- 
ton, two to the paymaster-general, the fourth is kept 
with the regiment. There is the same disposition of 
the separate roll of the staff. In the staffs of the gen- 
erals the rolls are individual. The paymaster having 
charge of the brigade makes a calculation of the sum 
due to each one upon a column left for that purpose, 
and when he receives the necessary funds he proceeds 
to the camp to make the payment, after which he re- 
turns immediately to Washington. 

Is it necessary to point out the inconvenience of 
such a system ? The American soldier, whose pay is 
thirteen dollars a month, never receives less than 
twenty-six dollars at once, that is to say one hundred 
and thirty francs, a sum too large not to expose him to 
dangerous temptations. I know that they send a por- 
tion to their families, but all soldiers do not have fami- 
lies to provide for, and amongst those who have all do 
not perform this duty with the same scrupulous care. 
There are always some, too, who are not present to 
receive their pay. In that case they must wait two 
months longer, and then the amount they will receive 
will be fifty-two dollars. And we do not think this 
very exceptional. 



114 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

The enormous expense of the war, the robbery of the 
government in all manner of ways, or even the delay 
incident to a new issue of paper money, have often 
rendered it impossible for the treasury to fill its en- 
gagements on the day appointed. In that case the 
army and navy are regarded as best able to wait. Be- 
fore Fredericksburg our regiment received six months' 
back pay at once. This amounted to seventy-eight 
dollars to each man ; to the sergeants, more in propor- 
tion. 

From these figures there is nothing to deduct, for 
the difference in value between gold and paper money 
was compensated to the soldiers by an act of Congress, 
which raised their pay to sixteen dollars a month, an 
increase maintained a long while after the war. 

The soldier is not a hoarder, especially while on a 
campaign, where balls and bullets are considered by 
him in all his reckonings of the future. What is he to 
do, then, with any considerable sum .'' Let himself be 
robbed in play, at the risk of punishment if he is caught ; 
procure at an exorbitant price a few bottles of poor 
whiskey, with which he may intoxicate himself and his 
comrades, however grave may be the consequences. 
If he is desirous of deserting, the money will make it 
much easier. Perhaps he would not have thought of 
it otherwise, but, feeling his pocket full, his head heated 
by drink, it is not impossible that he may die, shot on 
the same spot where he received his fatal pay. 

For the absent, sent on detached service, or kept in 
some distant hospital, arise long complications from 
descriptive lists being incorrect, forgotten, or lost. All 
regimental commanders know to what interminable 
objections payment of men in hospital often gives rise, 
and how many patients have often been detained there 
an indefinite time as servants, for the sole reason that 



WINTER QUARTERS. II5 

they could not get their back pay. Some little infor- 
mality, an almost inevitable result of the accidents of 
war, was thus sufficient to retain in a disagreeable ser- 
vice men whose honorable wounds gave them a right 
to a positive leave of absence. 

The interest of the soldier, as well as that of disci- 
pline, demand in this respect a reformation. The 
government and the army of the United States have 
everything to gain by the adoption of a system of pay 
at short intervals, and by the change in the organiza- 
tion of the pay service which would be the result. 

I have just stated what was the pay of the infantry 
soldier. The sergeant had seventeen dollars a month ; 
the first sergeant, twenty dollars ; the sergeant-major, 
the commissary-sergeant, the quartermaster-sergeant, 
and the drum-major, twenty-one dollars ; the hospital 
steward, thirty dollars. 

The monthly pay of the officers was as follows : colo- 
nel, ;^I94; lieutenant-colonel, $170; major, $151 ; cap- 
tain, $118; first lieutenant, $108 ; second lieutenant, 
$103. To this must be added ten dollars per month to 
every officer commanding a company, in consideration 
of his responsibility for uniforms, arms, and accoutre- 
ments, etc. 

In time of war, forage is furnished in kind to mounted 
officers, in proportion to the number of horses allowed 
them. 

The pay is somewhat higher in the engineer corps, 
the cavalry, artillery, and staff. 

A brigadier-general receives three hundred dollars a 
month, and forage for four horses ; a major-general, 
$445., and forage for five horses. Finally, the lieu- 
tenant-general commanding-in-chief, $720, and whatever 
forage he requires. 

The month of November began sadly enough for us. 



Il6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

A continual rain, accompanied by violent storms, dark- 
ened the day of All Saints, and the next day we had to 
record the first death in the regiment. A soldier of the 
company of Zouaves had died after a few days' sickness, 
without our being able to send him to Washington. In 
default of the honor of falling upon the field of battle, 
he had at least the advantage of funeral services, 
accompanied by a certain military pomp. The body, 
clothed in full uniform, remained for twenty-four hours 
under a tent, covered with the flag and guarded by sen- 
tinels of the company, which not only volunteered this 
additional service, but also contributed to buy a good 
coffin and send the body home to the friends. Every 
one visited the tent. It was a new sight. But the 
coffin removed left no apparent void in the camp. 

" Mieux vaut goujat debout que Zouave enterre." ' 

This was the only man we lost by sickness before 
leaving for the Peninsula the following spring. The 
health of the men remained in the most satisfactory 
condition during the whole winter. We seldom had to 
send a man to the hospital, and then it was rather to 
prevent serious illness than to cure one already serious. 
The only case except ordinary indispositions was that of 
a recruit, arriving at camp about that time. 

This was a young Swiss, who had received an educa- 
tion enabling him to be attached to the editorial staff 
of a French journal in New York. Of a very ner- 
vous temperament, he had ruined his health by his 
unfortunate habit of intemperance. The immoder- 
ate use of strong liquors had resulted in bringing upon 
him the symptoms of dcliriuvi tremens, the result of 
which was that he lost his place. His only resource 
then was to enlist. He was near-sighted, and with a 

^ " A living dog is better than a dead lion." 



WINTER QUARTERS. II7 

feeble constitution, evidently unfit for the service ; but 
they did not examine very closely at that time, and he 
was sent to the Fifty-fifth. To put him in the ranks 
would have been to kill him certainly. I placed him 
on duty at the hospital, where he could be made 
useful without danger to his shattered constitution. 
Everything went well at first, but the fearful malady 
had not lost its hold on him. 

One night mournful bowlings resounded suddenly 
through the camp, followed immediately by a tumult- 
uous running, which awakened the sleepers with a 
start. The guard pursued a sort of a phantom half- 
naked, which fled uttering cries of distress : " For the 
love of God, do not kill me ! Is it not enough to have 
burned my tent .-• Ah ! they are going to shoot me ! " 
And wild shrieks to the colonel to save his life. The 
tumult soon quieted down, and the noise ceased in the 
guard-house. Immediately the adjutant reported to me 

that Mr. , the hospital steward's assistant, in an 

attack of deliriui)i tremens, had been arrested by the 
guard, and left in charge of the surgeons. 

The next day I sent* for Mr. , returned to his 

natural state. The recital which he gave me of his 
hallucinations made so strong an impression upon me 

that I can yet relate it in its strange details. Mr. 

had passed the evening, as usual, in the little tent which 
he had to himself. His writing finished, he lay down 
shortly after the fires were out, and went to sleep with 
no apparent ill-feeling. About one o'clock in the morn- 
ing, he was awakened by a sensation of burning heat. 
He opened his eyes, and saw with fright that his tent 
was on fire. It was filled with a thick smoke, which suf- 
focated him, and the flames, piercing the cloth at vari- 
ous points, burned up the walls, and extended in all 
directions with a dazzlinsf clearness. 



Il8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

He was about to rush out when he distinctly heard 
some officers, whose names he gave me, outside his 
tent, speaking in a low voice, and saying amongst them- 
selves : " Wait a little while ; the fire will force him 
to come out, and we will shoot him. He is good for 
nothing. Government cannot continue to feed such 
useless mouths in the army." 

The poor wretch, alarmed at these frightful words, 
covered his head, endeavoring to escape the attack of 
the flames. But in vain ; the heat became more and 
more unbearable ; tongues of fire crept under the cover 
and scorched his face. He felt himself burning alive. 
Frantic, he rushed out of the tent, astonished at not 
falling dead, and, not even hearing the discharge of the 
revolvers, he stopped and looked around him. The moon 
shone in the heavens with a peaceful serenity. The hos- 
pital tent stood within a few feet of him ; two firebrands, 
not yet entirely extinct, were still smoking in the open- 
air kitchen of the hospital. In the rear, the ambulances 
were in their place ; the horses motionless at their 
pickets, or searching out a few grains of oats scat- 
tered on the ground. The murderers had disappeared. 
Everywhere calm and silence. 

Mr. closely observed all these details, in order 

to convince himself that he was really awake. He re- 
garded attentively the stars, the trees, the tents, and 
even the stones on the ground, with which he was 
familiar, when, having advanced a few steps towards an 
open space, he saw the regiment drawn up in line, the 
arms at a ready, the officers in rear, as when firing is 
about to commence. Nothing stirred in the ranks, but 
a little farther off the sentinels were walking their usual 
beats. Then the colonel leaned forward on his horse 
and said : " Are the guns loaded with ball .-* " The 
adjutant, who was on foot, replied: "Yes, colonel." 



WINTER QUARTERS. II9 

At these words, everything appeared plain to the 

wretched Mr. . The regiment was under arms 

at that unusual hour for the purpose of shooting him. 
Wild with terror, he fled, giving utterance to the shrieks 
which had startled the whole camp. The guard, coming 
up, pursued him, and, confounding the reality more and 
more with his hallucinations, the fugitive was absolutely 
bereft of his senses when he was caught and brought to 
the guard-room. 

He related these details to me with perfect clearness 
of mind, but occasionally an expression of pain passed 
over his features. His eyes then examined the objects 
which surrounded him, and he touched with his hand 
those which were within his reach, as if he sought in 
the certainty of natural objects a necessary protection 
against the return of the phantoms. 

Mr. did not accompany the regiment on the 

campaign. He was sent to the military hospital at 
Philadelphia, where, shortly after, he received his dis- 
charge. 

During the three months that the army had remained 
concentrated around Washington, although inactive as 
regards operations against the enemy, it had, neverthe- 
less, employed the time profitably. Great progress had 
been made in instruction, in discipline, and in organi- 
zation in all branches of the service. The troops had 
exercised without intermission, in battalion and brigade 
drill, and occasionally in drill by division. At Tenally- 
town, the troops were frequently drilled in firing, espe- 
cially at a mark, in which the soldiers showed much 
emulation. 

General courts-martial were held in each brigade. 
They are composed of twelve officers chosen in equal 
numbers from each regiment, namely : one colonel, 
three majors, six captains, and two lieutenants. Their 



I20 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

jurisdiction embraces all crimes and offences the pen- 
alty for which exceeds the loss of one month's pay and 
condemnation to one month's imprisonment or hard 
labor, the limit assigned to the sentences of regimental 
courts-martial, which are composed of only three officers, 
and can try only non-commissioned officers and soldiers. 
The sentences of general courts-martial, comprising the 
punishment of death, hard labor, ball and chain, impris- 
onment, military degradation, etc., are subject only to 
the revision and approval of the general-in-chief before 
being carried into effect. 

The punishment of whipping was abolished in 1812, 
was reestablished in 1832 for the single case of deser- 
tion in time of peace, and finally abolished in 1861. 

The articles of war in the United States are nearly 
the same as in Europe, except that a duel is punished 
by disgraceful dismissal from the service, not only for 
the combatants, but also for the witnesses, and for 
every officer who may have taken any part, either in 
the sending or receiving of a challenge, or who even has 
abstained from preventing the combat. As, however, 
the duel had disappeared from the customs of the 
Northern States, those repressive measures required 
no application in the army. During the whole course 
of the war I knew but two cases where the fact of 
sending a challenge had been the cause of the dismissal 
of the officers who had braved the risks. 

Besides courts-martial, wise measures were taken to 
free the service from incapable officers. Examining 
committees were appointed, before whom the colonels 
could send those from whom nothing was to be expected 
satisfactory to the service. This measure had the good 
result of stimulating generally the lazy, and of sending 
home a quantity of incorrigible nobodies, who could not 
pass the examinations. Only it was not sufficiently 



WINTER QUARTERS. 121 

general. It would have been well to have extended 
it, also, so as to have included the colonels. 

On the whole, everything took on a better military- 
appearance in the army, which General McClellan was 
never weary of passing in review by divisions. 

Our time came, November 8. The three brigades 
proceeded early in the day to the Kolorama fields, near 
the place where we had encamped first on arriving at 
Washington. The march for us was about five miles ; 
but the weather was favorable, the roads in good condi- 
tion, and the new red pantaloons, received a few days 
before from New York, did not suffer. As usual, there 
was a crowd at the review, which was followed by 
grand evolutions commanded by General Buell. The 
general-in-chief appeared well pleased, and the spec- 
tators returned to Washington persuaded that, with 
such troops, it was necessary only to begin the 
march to go straight to Richmond. If, however, 
they had travelled over the road to Tenallytown 
that evening, their confidence, perhaps, would have 
been a little shaken, on seeing how many stragglers 
a marching column could leave behind it after one 
day of fatigue. 

That review was the farewell of General Buell to his 
division. A few days after, he left us, to command the 
Department of the Cumberland, with headquarters at 
Louisville, Ky. He was equally regretted by both offi- 
cers and men, in spite of his severity in the details of 
the service. Every one had confidence in his military 
ability, and the soldier attaches himself preferably to 
leaders whose merit justifies their authority and is a 
guarantee that his life will not be sacrificed uselessly 
and unprofitably on the field of battle. 

General Buell was succeeded by General Keyes, an 
officer grown old in the service, which does not mean 



122 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

that he had the abrupt manners of a givgnard. He 
was, on the contrary, a man of amiable manners, hav- 
ing found in California the opportunity, rare for military 
men, of making a considerable fortune. Thus his resi- 
dence in San Francisco had left much stronger marks 
on him than his former expeditions against the Indians 
of the Northwest. Little desirous of imitating the 
Spartan habits of his predecessor, he decidedly pre- 
ferred a comfortable house in Washington to a tent in 
the open air. Accordingly, he made his headquarters 
there, without troubling himself too much about the 
inconvenience to the service which might result there- 
from. For the rest, although not a strict disciplinarian 
like Buell, Keyes was, nevertheless, a capable com- 
mander. His conduct at the battle of Bull Run was 
spoken of in high terms, and his affability soon gained 
him the warm regards of his inferiors, and he rarely 
lost the opportunity of addressing a compliment to 
them. 

It was a matter of course that General Keyes, in his 
turn, manoeuvred his division under the eyes of the 
commander-in-chief. This second review, at an inter- 
val of a month from the first one, was decidedly more 
satisfactory, and served to note the progress the army 
continued to make from day to day. But the season 
was already too far advanced to employ them against 
the enemy. Nor did the unfortunate affair of Ball's 
Bluff, still quite recent, encourage haste. The affair 
was as follows : — 

On October 20, General Stone, whose division 
guarded the line of the upper Potomac, about thirty 
miles above Washington, gave an order to Colonel 
Devens, commanding the Fifteenth Massachusetts, to 
cross the river during the night, attack and destroy an 
encampment of the enemy which, according to the re- 



WINTER QUARTERS. I 23 

port of an officer sent on a reconnoissance, was a short 
distance off. On the 21st, at daylight, Colonel Devens, 
on arriving at the place indicated, found, instead of the 
pretended camp, an apple orchard planted on a hill, 
which, in the doubtful light of the moon, had taken on, 
in the eyes of the scouts, the appearance of tents sym- 
metrically aligned. He immediately made his report, 
without abandoning his advanced position, where the 
presence of the regiment was known to the enemy. 
From this first report, it was concluded much too 
quickly that it was possible to make a favorable attack 
on Leesburg, and the Twentieth Massachusetts, a Cali- 
fornia regiment, and one New York regiment received 
orders to cross the river with them. For that purpose 
there were but two flat-boats, capable of carrying forty 
men, and an iron rowboat ; — means so much the more 
insufficient in that they were obliged to land on and 
cross over a long and narrow island, and then reembark 
on the other side. 

Slowly and painfully they thus finally succeeded in 
transporting to the Virginia bank a thousand men, 
and one rifled and two smooth-bore guns. As if to com- 
plicate affairs, the command had fallen upon Colonel 
Baker, ex-senator from Oregon, a brave but unskilled 
officer, although he had served in the Mexican War. 
General Stone committed the fault of leaving the con- 
duct of the expedition to his discretion. So that when 
Colonel Devens, pressed by superior forces, and having 
the enemy on his heels, fell back in good order upon 
the point where he must repass the river, he found a 
line of battle unskilfully posted across the only open 
ground in the midst of woods. Still more unskilfully, 
the pieces of artillery were placed in advance, and so 
exposed that they hardly began to use them before the 
cannoneers were killed or wounded by the concentrated 



124 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

fire of the enemy's sharpshooters. And, finally, the 
position assigned to the Fifteenth Massachusetts was 
so badly chosen that half its fire was useless. 

The troops fought bravely, — admirably even for men 
who had never been under fire, who felt that they were 
badly commanded, and fighting an enemy double their 
number. Grouped upon the bluff, they defended them- 
selves as well as they could until nightfall, but were 
finally crushed. The first who threw themselves into 
the only flat-boat within reach caused it to sink under 
their weight. Then all who could swim threw them- 
selves into the water. The rest fell into the hands of 
the enemy, with the cannon and the wounded, whose 
number was quite large. We must except, however, 
about one hundred and fifty men, saved by the ener- 
getic coolness of a captain of the Twentieth Massachu- 
setts, Frank Bartlett, since made a general. This young 
officer, having discovered a boat concealed along the 
bank, sent over successively the soldiers who had fol- 
lowed him, going over himself with the last. Colonel 
Baker was killed, thus paying with his life for whatever 
errors were committed. Of the sixteen hundred men 
thus thrown heedlessly across the Potomac, scarcely 
one-half escaped. 

This unfortunate engagement terminated the cam- 
paign of 1 86 1 as it had commenced, with a rout. It 
was made the subject of a minute inquiry by the com- 
mittee of Congress upon the conduct of the war. Gen- 
eral Stone threw all the responsibility upon Colonel 
Baker, who was not there to reply. But it was not 
shown that the latter would have risked three regiments 
of his brigade without orders, in a position where retreat 
was impossible in case of a reverse. Besides, whatever 
his errors and faults in the disposition of his troops dur- 
ing the engagement, they would have simply been re- 



WINTER QUARTERS. I 25 

pulsed, and not destroyed, if the means of returning 
had not been wanting. 

Public opinion was much more affected by that heed- 
less affair, in that it believed it discovered indications 
of treason. Some depositions taken .by the committee, 
in fact, brought suspicions of connivance with the Con- 
federates upon General Stone, — suspicions which must 
have been serious, to lead to his imprisonment in Fort 
Lafayette. However, as no proof came to hand to cor- 
roborate these imputations, which his loyal character 
and former services rendered improbable, he was re- 
stored to liberty, without, however, obtaining the privi- 
lege of a court-martial, from which he expected restora- 
tion to rank. It was only toward the end of the war 
that his return to active duty was the tardy reparation 
of an injustice from which his honor had so cruelly 
suffered. 

The natural conclusion to be drawn from the affair 
of Ball's Bluff was that, in general, the men were more 
capable of good fighting than the leaders were of com- 
manding. 

The season grew more and more unfavorable for 
active operations. December arrived with its accom- 
paniments of rain and frosts. The horrible roads of 
Virginia had become mud holes, impracticable for ar- 
tillery and wagon trains. The army was compelled to 
enter into winter quarters. Nothing was changed in 
the position of the troops, but measures were taken to 
better protect them against the storms. The tents 
in bad order were renewed, leaving to the different 
brigades every latitude in laying out and making com- 
fortable their encampments in a manner the most 
advantageous for the well-being of the soldier. 

The system adopted for the regiment was that of 
log cabins, square huts made of round logs, generally 



126 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

split in two and plastered with mud, which closed the 
cracks. Upon these walls, three or four feet high, the 
tent was placed for a roof. A door made of boards, or 
a rubber blanket, opened to the interior. The inven- 
tive mind of the soldier was shown in ingenious con- 
trivances to increase the furniture and economize the 
space of six square feet. The problem was to make it 
hold two beds, one table, a rack for arms, a valise for 
the clothes, a California fireplace — the California 
fireplace is dug in the ground and covered over to 
the level of the floor by large fiat stones, under which 
a current of air, skilfully arranged, keeps the fire alive 
and carries off the smoke outside by a narrow channel 
on the side opposite the entrance — or a little sheet- 
iron stove, and a stool. The problem is nearly always 
victoriously solved, sometimes even with other small ad- 
ditions to comfort. 

The surrounding woods furnished materials in abun- 
dance, and the daily drills were suspended during the 
few days necessary for the men to construct their win- 
ter mansions. 

The officers took advantage of the situation to organ- 
ize their mess in a dining-hall, which they bought ready- 
made in Washington. American ingenuity, always 
ready to take advantage of circumstances, found in the 
vvar new sources of profit. Among other inventions, 
board houses of all dimensions were built, perfectly 
constructed, furnished with doors and windows, and 
capable of being easily put together and taken apart. 
That of the officers of the Fifty-fifth was long enough 
to set a table with forty covers, a precious resource for 
winter evenings. 

The mess is the table for the officers of a regiment, 
provided for at the common expense. In England it is 
a permanent institution. The officers pass away, the 



WINTER QUARTERS. I 27 

mess remains. It has a stock of silver, often very fine, 
a complete service of linen, porcelain, and glass, a stock 
of fine wines, etc. In a country where the commis- 
sions are bought and where a fortune is a condition 
almost indispensable for entering the army, it is natu- 
ral enough that the boarding of the officers should take 
the character of a club. Outside of the service, each 
one is 2, gejitleinan in uniform. The grades of the mili- 
tary service give way to an epicurean sociability, which 
unites all at the same table, from the colonel to the last 
second lieutenant, especially as the second lieutenant 
might be the heir presumptive of some great territorial 
magnate, and the colonel but a well-to-do citizen when 
out of his uniform. 

In France, where the greater part of the officers have 
only their modest pay on which to live, and rely on their 
merit as soldiers for promotion, the difference in pay 
and the military rank are in accord, in maintaining a 
separate table for the lieutenants, one for the captains, 
and one for the superior officers. 

In America, a country of democratic liberty and of 
individual independence, each one arranges his affairs 
to suit himself. In the Fifty-fifth, composed of mingled 
elements, we had adopted still a different method, in es- 
tablishing two messes, that of the staff and that of the 
company officers. 

No event of military importance marked the four 
months which we passed in winter quarters. The 
monotonous regularity of our camp life was enlivened 
only by a few matters of regimental interest, such as 
the presentation of a fine war horse, which was given 
to me, in a formal manner, by the officers of my regi- 
ment. Unfortunately, the war horse would not answer 
me even for parade service. It was a black stallion of 
splendid appearance, but, like most stallions, very skit- 



128 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

tish and intractable. He could never get accustomed to 
fire, and, after interminable strifes to familiarize him 
with drill, I had to use him solely as a horse for parade. 
He was captured by the Confederates at Fredericks- 
burg. I was consoled by thinking that he was of no 
more use to them than to me. 

I recall to my memory the traditional keeping of 
Christmas, the serenades interchanged between the 
regiments of the brigade on New Year's eve, — ser- 
enades of bands, of drums, of bugles, varied by Eng- 
lish, French, and German choruses. The most mem- 
orable day of the winter was that when the President 
of the United States sat at our table with a large and 
brilliant company. The occasion was as follows : — 

One of the officers of the Zouave company had nu- 
merous friends in New York who agreed together to 
offer two splendid fiags to the regiment, one the Amer- 
ican colors, and the other the French. The presenta- 
tion was arranged beforehand in a formal manner, and 
the day set was the 8th of January, anniversary of the 
battle of New Orleans. 

The weather was favorable ; a sharp frost had hard- 
ened the drill ground, which was covered with a light 
fall of show. The effect of the Zouave pantaloons and 
the blue caps was picturesque ; the spectators had a 
good view, while the principal actors had a fine place, 
carefully swept, reserved for them. Although this sort 
of ceremony was not new, the number of carriages and 
of horsemen and horsewomen was large for the season. 
The open barouche of the President contained Mr. and 
Mrs. Lincoln, General Shields, and Mr. N. P. Willis, an 
elegant writer, whose works have a popularity both in 
England and in America. 

Mr. Frederick A. Conklin, a member of Congress 
from one of the New York City districts, delivered an 



WINTER QUARTERS. 1 29 

eloquent speech, to which I repHed — what one does 
reply on such an occasion. The drums beat, the bugles 
sounded, the flag guard returned to the ranks, and the 
marching-by terminated the military ceremony, but not 
the celebration. 

The programme embraced in addition a collation pre- 
pared in the dining-hall, whose inner wails were, for the 
occasion, hung with flags adorned with garlands, and 
all the military tokens that the soldiers understand 
so well how to arrange. The President, the generals, 
the ladies, and a few guests of distinction took the 
places of honor at the table, where it was the pride of 
the regiment to serve nothing which had not been pre- 
pared by its culinary artists. 

The triumph of the latter was complete but costly, 
in the sense that the cooks, having given too good proof 
of talent, were very soon carried off by the generals, 
who had them detailed to their quarters. I thus lost a 
half-dozen fighting men, whom the fires of the kitchen 
saved from the fire of the enemy. 

The President did honor to the collation. Never, 
said he, had he so well dined since his entry to the 
White House. He tried everything, and the gayety of 
his humor showed how well he appreciated that momen- 
tary diversion from the grave cares which weighed upon 
him at this time. He could not, however, escape the 
toast, which it was my duty to propose: "The health 
and the prosperity of the President of the Republic. 
May he quickly see the Union reestablished under his 
administration ; but not so soon, however, but that the 
Fifty-fifth may have an opportunity to contribute to it 
on some field of battle." 

The President replied with a few words of thanks, 
which he closed as follows : " All that I can say is, 
that, if you fight as well as you treat your guests, vie- 



130 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tory is assured to us. And, since the Union may not 
be reestablished before the Fifty-fifth has had its bat- 
tle, I drink to the battle of the Fifty-fifth, and I wish 
it may be fought as soon as possible." 

On his departure from the dining-hall, he was re- 
ceived with enthusiastic cries by the soldiers, who 
crowded around his carriage and formed in line on 
both sides, to salute successively the guests as they 
passed. 

The visit of President Lincoln was the first notable 
incident in the remembrance of the regiment. The 
two flags which recall the day had very different fates. 
One, the French- tricolor, left Tenallytown only to re- 
turn to New York, where it still occasionally appears 
to adorn the parades of the new Fifty-fifth, which has 
taken our place in the militia. The other, the national 
flag, received its baptism of fire at Williamsburg, and, 
riddled with balls and torn by canister, left its pieces at 
Fair Oaks and at Malvern Hill, until there remained no 
more than the staff and a shred of the fringe at Fred- 
ericksburg, where its glorious career ended. 

But at Tenallytown we knew nothing of war except 
the roses, although around us many had already been 
pricked by the thorns. The placing of camps in all 
directions around Washington could not be done ex- 
cept at the expense of the property which the govern- 
ment • of necessity occupied. Forts were constructed, 
troops were encamped, woods were cut down, and the 
earth upturned. The soldiers, with little discipline in 
the greater part of the regiments, committed depreda-. 
tions difficult to prevent, especially in the orchards and 
vegetable gardens. Agricultural work was suspended. 
Of what use to work the ground or sow the seed where 
the harvest could not be gathered .-* And, besides, the 
negroes employed heretofore in the fields were want- 



WINTER QUARTERS. I3I 

ing. They left their masters everywhere, encouraged 
and aided by the Northern troops, who were filled with 
hatred of slavery, and who almost believed themselves 
in an enemy's country, because they found themselves 
in a country with slavery. Land-owners, thus deprived 
of their income, were already on the road to ruin. 

The land occupied by the Fifty-fifth formed part of 

a large property belonging to Mr. L , whose house 

was separated from the camp only by a field, set aside 
for drill. It was a fine house, surrounded by trees and 
turf, with a broad avenue leading to the highway, with 
gardens, and all buildings necessary for farm work, — 
everything which tends to the enjoyment of a fortune 

in a country life. Mr. L was one of the best men 

whom I ever knew, joining simplicity of heart with the 
fine manners of a gentleman, judging things without 
passion or prejudice, faithfully attached to the Union, 
and prepared for sacrifices by the sincerity of his re- 
ligious sentiments. Before the war he lived happily, 
surrounded by a charming family, for whom the future 
appeared to have smiles only, without frowns. One 
year had changed the whole aspect. One of his two 
sons had gone to California, the other had joined the 
rebel army. Madame L and her two young daugh- 
ters alone remained at Grassland, to sustain and console 
the aged man in his terrible trials. 

Besides Grassland, Mr. L owned another estate 

a few miles out, on the Rockville road. That had been 
plundered by passing troops, who found it abandoned. 
There remained only a dismantled mill, a deserted 
house, and some uncultivated ground, of which the 
fences served to feed the picket fires. And yet the 
hospitable habits of the family survived the shipwreck 
of its fortunes. Those of my officers whom I introduced 
were received with an unfeigned politeness, and often I 



t^ 



132 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sat at the family dinner, which was offered me with the 
same cordiality which presided there in better days. 

During that winter the good-nature of the soldiers, 
as much as their obedience to discipline, assured com- 
plete security to Mrs. L 's gardens and domestic 

fowls. But after our departure the state of affairs was 
much changed, and when the fortunes of war brought 
me again into that neighborhood, during the first inva- 
sion of Maryland, I found this family, formerly so well 
situated, compelled by daily necessities to make their 
livelihood by boarding officers stationed in the vicinity. 

Such was the effect of the war in the immediate 
neighborhood of the capital. What would it be when 
we entered the enemy's country .'' 



CHAPTER VII. 

MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 

Congress — The population of Washington — The lobby and the specta- 
tors — The contractors for the army — The faint-hearted — The gen- 
eral-in-chief — General Seth Williams — The Count de Paris — The 
Duke de Chartres — The diplomatic corps. — Its partiality for the 
South — Why? — Receptions at the White House — Mr. Stanton 
— Mr. Seward — President Lincoln. 

So the days passed on, one like another, in camp life. 
In order to vary the uniformity, we had occasionally 
permission to pass twelve or twenty-four hours in Wash- 
ington. It afforded one an opportunity to keep informed 
on those matters which the papers did not publish, and 
to study the curious spectacle presented by the capital 
at that time. 

Congress had commenced its session in the beginning 
of December. It entered with unanimity on an ener- 
getic course, freed from factious opposition by the 
absence of Southern representatives, and by the assist- 
ance of the Northern Democrats, who had united with 
the Republicans, to pursue the war with vigor. There 
were a very few discordant voices, who, under the 
cloak of a false patriotism, made vain attacks against 
the national cause, and hypocritical excuses in favor of 
secession. — Rari iiantes — an occasional remnant of 
the shipwrecked party in the vast current of public 
opinion. 

Outside of the Confederate States, the country was a 
unit for repressing the rebell'ion, at any cost, if we ex- 
cept Maryland, where the opposition became the subject 



134 FOUR y^\Rs WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

of ridicule, by being reduced to the puerile affectations 
of the women of Baltimore ; the little State of Dela- 
ware, whose insignificance made it hardly worth while 
to take it into account ; and Kentucky, whose pro- 
slavery interests were not sufficient to wrench it from 
the federal power. Nevertheless, there were not want- 
ing at Washington birds of evil augury, affirming the 
oselessness of the war, foreseeing only disasters, and 
predicting the ruin of the Union, by the certain estab- 
lishment of the Southern Confederacy. 

It must be remembered that Washington was a 
Southern city. Since the verj' beginning of the Repub- 
lic the Southern men had carried things there with 
a high hand. They had there carefully preserv'ed their 
sacred institution. They had diligently maintained 
their ideas and principles, by means of the preponder- 
ating influence which they exercised in the different 
branches of the government. Thus they were there af 
hmnc where the Northern men felt that they were stran- 
gers, in that common capital, which the representatives of 
the free States could not reach without passing over 
pro-slaver\' territory, and where all domestic service was 
rendered by slaves. 

This state of affairs had left deep traces in the papu- 
lation, which remained faithful to the worship of the 
I>ast, without, however, disdaining to make all possible 
profit from the present condition. Never, indeed, had 
there been seen, such a concourse of people at W^ash- 
ington. The concentration of more than a hundred 
and fifty thousand men around the city developed there 
an industrial and commercial activity without a prece- 
dent. It was like a population quadrupled in a few 
months, three-quarters of whom consumed without 
producing anything. 

But, besides the army formed to act against the 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINCiTON. 1 35 

enemy, there was another army — of lobbyists, contrac- 
tors, speculators, which was continually renewed and 
never exhausted. These hurried to the assault on the 
treasury, like a cloud of locusts alighting down upon the 
capital to devour the substance of the country. They 
were everywhere ; in the streets, in the hotels, in the 
offices, at the Capitol, and in the White House. They 
contmually besieged the bureaus of administration, the 
doors of the Senate and House of Representatives, 
wherever there was a chance to gain something. 

Government, obliged to ask the aid of private industry, 
for every kind of supply that the army and navy must 
have without delay, was really at the mercy of these 
hungry spoilers, who combined with one another to 
make the law for the government. From this arose 
contracts exceedingly burdensome, which impoverished 
the treasury, to enrich a few individuals. 

As a matter of course, these latter classes, strangers 
to every patriotic impulse, saw in the war only an 
extraordinary opportunity of making a fortune. Everv 
means for obtaining it was a good one to them ; so that 
corruption played a great part in the business of con- 
tracting. Political protection was purchased by giving 
an interest in the contracts obtained. Now, as these 
contracts must be increased or renewed, according to 
the duration of the war, its prolongation became a 
direct advantage to a certain class of people disposing 
of large capital and of extended influence. What was 
the effect on events ? It would be difficult to state pre- 
cisely. But, in any case, this was evidently one of the 
causes which embarrassed the course of affairs, and 
delayed, more or less, the reestablishment of the 
Union. 

The government — that is, the people, who, in the 
end, support the weight of public expenses — was, then. 



136 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

fleeced by the more moderate and robbed by the more 
covetous. The army suffered from it directly, as the 
supplies, which were furnished at a price which was 
much above their value if they had been of a good 
quality, were nearly all of a fraudulent inferiority. For 
example, instead of heavy woollen blankets, the recruits 
received, at this time, light, open fabrics, made I do not 
know of what different substances, which protected 
them against neither the cold nor the rain. A very 
short wear changed a large part of the uniform to rags, 
and during the winter spent at Tenallytown the ordi- 
nary duration of a pair of shoes was not longer than 
twenty or thirty days. 

This last fact, well attested in my regiment, was fol- 
lowed by energetic remonstrances, on account of which 
the general commanding the brigade appointed, ac- 
cording to the regulations, a special Board of Inspec- 
tion, with the object of obtaining the condemnation of 
the defective articles. Amongst the members of the 
board was an officer expert in these matters, having 
been employed, before the war, in one of the great 
shoe factories of Massachusetts. The report was very 
precise. It showed that the shoes were made of poor 
leather, not having been properly tanned, that the in- 
side of the soles was filled with gray paper, and that 
the heels were so poorly fastened that it needed only 
a little dry weather following a few days of rain to have 
them drop from the shoes. In fine, the fraud was 
flagrant in every way. 

The report was duly forwarded to the superior au- 
thorities. Did it have any consideration } I never 
knew. However, it was necessary to exhaust the 
stock in hand before obtaining a new supply, and 
the price charged the soldier was not altered. 

Let us return to Washington. 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 1 37 

The general impression was not favorable to the suc- 
cess of the government in the war. No one had fore- 
seen its formidable proportions, so that, as the real 
situation became manifest, many were frightened at 
the magnitude of the sacrifices demanded, and the 
uncertainty of the results. In calculating what great 
efforts must be made, what expenses incurred, what sac- 
rifices endured, to reestablish the P'ederal Union, timid 
spirits asked if it would not be wise to accept accom- 
plished facts and be satisfied with a Republic of twenty 
free States, infinitely more powerful and more prosper- 
ous than had ever been the thirteen States which 
originally founded the great American nation. Thus 
they concurred in the opinion of certain Northern mer- 
chants, whose Southern trade was injured, and of cer- 
tain politicians disappointed in their devotion to the 
cause of slavery. All would have blindly sacrificed 
their country to their cowardice, their interest, or their 
ambition. 

But the government and the people were capable of 
judging affairs more soundly. They comprehended 
that the strife entered upon was a question of life 
or death. The only chance of safety rested upon the 
maintaining of the great principle of cohesion, the fun- 
damental base and guaranty of the union of the States 
in one people. To concede the right of secession was 
to loosen forever the link, and deliver the country up 
to an endless division, from which could come only 
common ruin, with interminable conflicts, of which 
the history of the Spanish republics of the new world 
had given so many examples and shown the 'conse- 
quences. 

If, taking " things at their worst, the Confederacy 
of the South succeeded in establishing its indepen- 
dence after a long and desperate war, the principle 



138 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

would remain safe and strong. Force only could break 
up the Union, which is the fact in regard to all prin- 
ciples of government confronted by revolutions. No 
new secession could quote the rebellion as a precedent, 
and no attempt would be made a second time with the 
expectation of succeeding except by force subject to be 
repressed by arms. Now, that is a trial to be made 
only at the last extremity, and which will be much less 
liable to be attempted when it is seen through what 
dangers and sacrifices it leads. Every idea of compro- 
mise then was illusory, and yet it appears that there 
were, at that time, minds so little clairvoyant as to 
believe it possible. In a secret assemblage, which met 
at Baltimore, in June, a few Democrats of the North and 
of the South discussed seriously the problem of the re- 
establishment of the Union to the advantage of slavery, 
and for the exclusion of New England ! It was re- 
ported that, to prepare the way, every influence of 
this singular assemblage was used to assure to Gen- 
eral McClellan the command-in-chief of the army, to 
which he was, in fact, promoted a month later. In this 
respect, the rumors appear to have arisen from the polit- 
ical conduct of the general at different times, and es- 
pecially during the presidential campaign of 1864, when 
he was the unhappy candidate of the deplorable party 
of peace and compromise. 

However that may be, during the winter of 1861-62, 
General McClellan was the one on whom the great 
hopes for the success of the war rested. His popu- 
larity, though based rather upon anticipations as to 
what he was going to do, than upon any substantial 
reason, made him, nevertheless, the greatest power of the 
time. By singing his praises daily, the press had made 
him a sort of savior for the people and an irrresistible 
conqueror for the army. Up to that time, however, the 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 1 39 

part of the idol had consisted simply in letting him- 
self be adored. 

General McClellan resided in Washington, in an 
elegant house, where he held his court. There he 
received the homage which always bows before power, 
there he welcomed the officers who flocked around 
him to ask from favor what their merit did not de- 
serve. To the remainder of the army he showed him- 
self only during grand reviews. Never did he visit our 
camps. Never, in my knowledge, did he seek to find 
out for himself what was the state of discipline, of in- 
struction, or the condition of the troops which he was 
to lead against the enemy. In that respect, the offi- 
cial reports were sufficient for him. 

On the other hand, when any military business took 
us to headquarters, we never failed to find there an 
officer who, perhaps, did more than any other for 
the organization of the Army of the Potomac. I 
mean Seth Williams, major in the regular army and 
assistant adjutant-general, — duties which he performed 
as brigadier-general of volunteers until the end of the 
war, so valuable were his services to the different gen- 
erals who succeeded in the command. Seth Williams 
was a man, simple, modest, and devoted to his duty ! 
An indefatigable worker, nothing seemed to him un- 
worthy of his attention. He applied himself equally to 
general affairs and to the minute details, — multiplying 
thus his labors, to obviate the defects of intermediate 
machinery in the vast organization of the army, where 
it was as necessary to create as it was to bring matters 
into proper order. 

The Count de Paris and the Duke de Chartres were, 
as I have said, attached to the staff of General McClel- 
lan. They, with the Duke de Joinville, occupied a 
house where the French were always welcome. 



140 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The position occupied by the Count de Paris im- 
poses upon me a reserve, which every one will 
understand. 

I can at least, without a political bearing, render 
justice here to the amiability of his manners, to the 
wisdom and moderation of his views, as well as to the 
general correctness of his ideas. As to their par- 
ticular application to France, either as regards govern- 
ment or politics, that is a subject upon which I have 
never had any conversation with the prince. Whether 
in free intercourse at his table, where I have some- 
times had an opportunity to partake of his hospi- 
tality, or in conversation in my tent, where he has done 
me the honor to visit me, he has seemed to me 
to avoid with care anything which could appear like 
the role of a pretender. But he spoke freely and sen- 
sibly on general subjects, and judged correctly the 
situation in America. 

As to the Duke de Chartres, he fully enjoyed the 
privilege of not being the heir presumptive to any 
crown. His active, gay, and lively nature just suited 
the uniform of Captain Robert d'Orleans. His ad- 
dress was frank, his conversation easy. He enjoyed 
a well told anecdote, and a trooper's joke was not dis- 
pleasing to him. War seemed to be his element, so 
jovial did he appear. Whatever happens, his dignity 
will not prevent him from taking his part. 

The last of the Stuarts died at Rome, wretched in a 
cardinal's robe. The Orleans family will never end in 
that manner, if the last of the race resemble in the 
least the Duke de Chartres. 

One day in January, the prince, who never missed 
an occasion to mount his horse, was sent to make the 
roimd of our picket line along the Potomac, as far as 
Great Falls. He stopped a moment at our camp, 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 141 

which was on his road. I had my horse saddled to 
accompany him, and we started. 

From Tenallytown to Great Falls is about twelve 
miles, and the road was far from being good, or the 
weather agreeable. In order to visit the posts, we had 
to climb hills, to descend steep slopes, to pass through 
thickets, to wade through mud. Captain d'Orleans ap- 
peared scarcely to notice it. He did his duty conscien- 
tiously, without allowing himself to be turned aside by 
the difficulties. 

We reached, after a time, a point where we must 
cross the canal ; the ferry-boat was on the other side, 
and the ferry-man some distance off. While we were 
waiting for him we dismounted, holding" our horses by 
the bridle. 

Life brings us to some singular encounters. I have 
witnessed too many to be much astonished at them, 
but a strong impression remains with me of that ride 
in the woods of the new world, with the grandson of 
the last king of France, wearing the uniform of the 
Republic. 

At sunset, we separated at the forks of a road 
which would take me back to camp. The prince scru- 
pulously continued his rounds to Great Falls, where he 
did not arrive until after nightfall, — which did not 
prevent his returning that night to headquarters. 

Amongst the visits which I made from time to time 
to Washington, I could not forget those which made 
me directly acquainted with the opinions of the diplo- 
matic corps upon the great American crisis. I must say 
that upon this subject the representatives of the Euro- 
pean powers showed a remarkable lack of perspicacity 
in their judgments. In their opinion, the Union was 
doomed. It could never be reestablished, and it was 
infinitely better, by accepting the separation, to avoid 



T42 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

a disastrous war, whose sole result would be to ruin 
the country, without any imaginable compensation. 

What struck me the most in these conversations 
was less the errors of judgment than the flagrant par- 
tiality of the argument. 

Certainly, the foreign ministers residing at Wash- 
ington had every means of being well informed. And 
yet they saw things entirely different from what they 
were. The obstacles, the abuses, the embarrassments 
which I have noted, took in their eyes such proportions 
that they appeared to have looked upon them through 
the magnifying glass of a moral microscope, while 
the enthusiastic resolution of the people, its prompt 
readiness to make all necessary sacrifices, the immense 
material resources of the country, the power of a great 
national idea, the inspiration of a cause ennobled by 
civilization and liberty, all these escaped their eyes, or 
were without sensible v/eight in the balance of their 
judgments. 

On the contrary, if they considered the case of the 
Confederates, they reasoned quite otherwise. They 
saw everything to their advantage. Their relative 
poverty became inexhaustible riches. Their inferiority 
as to population would be more than compensated 
by the conscrij^tion, and, if necessary, by a levy en 
masse. Their crop of cotton alone was worth armies. 
All the good generals fought in their ranks ; all 
the great statesmen were on their side. The thinly 
settled territory was inaccessible to our columns, and, 
if we beat them on the frontier, they would be uncon- 
querable in the heart of the Confederacy. Finally, tired 
of war, it would be necessary for us to yield, only too 
happy if the will of the conqueror was not imposed 
upon us in Washington itself. 

The ministers of Prussia and Italy were the only 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 1 43 

ones, in my knowledge, who did not look on affairs in 
this manner, and who were fully convinced of the final 
and complete triumph of our arms. 

The blindness of the diplomatic corps came in part 
from the former relations of the most of its members 
with the Southern men. Before the war, they asso- 
ciated preferably with those Americans who, in their 
manners, their education, and their habits, were closer 
to the elegant usages of European society. In this re- 
spect, the superiority was on the side of the South. 
Their representatives at Washington, whether in the 
government, in Congress, or in society, belonged gener- 
ally to the class of rich planters, in which the aristocra- 
tic traditions were preserved, not less in their manner 
of living than in their principles. Many had visited 
Europe. They could talk of it from their personal ob- 
servations, sometimes as well in French as in English. 
Some kept house in the capital, where their receptions 
and their parties were very elegant. On account of this 
intimate intercourse with the diplomatic corps, they, at 
the table, in the intervals of their games of whist, ex- 
plained the enigmas of home politics from their point 
of view, and demonstrated the infallible success of 
their plan of secession. 

The Northern men had not the same advantages. In 
the first place, their ideas were much less in accord 
with the European ideas, and their manners were not, 
in general, those of a refined society ; even amongst 
those who occupied high stations in political life, there 
were many self-made men, whose early education had 
been much neglected and whose habits showed the 
humbleness of their origin. The latter kept aloof 
from the embassies, where their rare appearance 
on reception days was known by their dirty boots, 
their neglect of dress, and their plebeian appetite 



144 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

at the supper table, — things which are important, in 
diplomacy. 

Without doubt, the North also sent to Washington 
men with polite manners, distinguished gentlemen, and 
even learned men. But they were in the minority. 
Besides, their democratic republicanism could not be 
expected to inspire confidence or sympathy in the 
representatives of an order of things diametrically 
opposite. 

The cause of this difference between the South and 
the North at the seat of government was that at the 
South a political career was considered as the natural 
vocation of, and belonging to men of the highest stand- 
ing. At the North, on the contrary, it was generally 
abandoned to men of a secondary position, as men of 
the highest culture had withdrawn from the race to 
escape the obligation of courting the multitude and of 
lending themselves to electoral transactions repugnant 
to their conscience or their dignity. 

Thus it was easy to explain the partiality of the for- 
eign embassies for the cause of the South, by their 
liking for the Southern men. But also it is not difficult 
to perceive in this preference a reflection of the distrust 
inspired in the European monarchies by the Grand 
Republic. 

For centuries, the people of the old world have been 
taught to believe that a republican government was 
impossible on a large scale, and that only small com- 
munities, like the Swiss, could be governed in that 
manner. Against that theory was the fact of the 
United States of America, whose very existence led to 
quite opposite conclusions. Arguments availed nothing, 
for there is not in politics, as in religion, a divine reve- 
lation to invoke, in order to substitute faith for reason 
and to make absurdity itself evidence, "quia absurdum." 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 1 45 

General Bonaparte said : " The French RepubHc is 
like the sun : it is only the blind who do not see it." 
It is the same to-day with the American Republic. 
The people are not so blind as not to see it. 

When America was still very young, Joseph de 
Maistre, the great apostle of the throne and the altar, 
found nothing to say against her but that fact : " They 
cite to us America. I know nothing more provoking 
than the praises given to that infant in swaddling 
clothes. Wait until it has grown." Since then the 
infant has grown exceedingly. She has become a giant. 
Her birth contradicted even then the theory of impos- 
sibility. Her grandeur, her prosperity, her power have 
completed the refutation. 

Not that I would conclude from this that the re- 
publican form of government would be, at present, the 
best for all people. On the contrary, I do not think 
so. All governments are good which conform to the 
temperaments of the governed, to their advance in 
civilization, and to the particular conditions in which 
they are placed. All governments are bad which do 
not respond to the demands of public sentiment, to the 
needs of the general welfare, and to that long educa- 
tion of the people by which the development of progress 
is regulated. The best form of government may be- 
come the worst in certain times and certain countries 
where it may be applied. Nothing is absolute in this 
world. 

Unhappily, rational philosophy does not regulate the 
intercourse of governments with each other. Their in- 
tercourse depends upon the natural or dynastic interests, 
and the diplomats are sent out to reconnoitre and pre- 
pare the way. Now, for the monarchies of Europe 
there was a moral interest in the shipwreck of the great 
republican experiment. For some of them there was a 



146 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

natural interest in the dismemberment of the Union. 
Their representatives at Washington so understood it, 
and allowed their judgment to be too easily influenced 
by tlieir desires. 

In searching through the archives of foreign affairs 
at Paris, in the diplomatic reports and correspondence 
from Washington during the war, there would be found 
a curious chapter of erroneous judgments and false pre- 
dictions. Who knows if there would not be found the 
real cause of certain enterprises which would not have 
been entered upon, of certain complications arising in 
the political world, which would not have occurred if 
the government had been more correctly informed upon 
the true state of affairs in America ? 

In the midst of these busy agitations, disinterested 
visitors also flocked to the capital, to look upon the 
unaccustomed sights offered to their curiosity. A trip 
to Washington was a pleasure excursion, very much in 
fashion, especially for the New York ladies, coming to 
see and to be seen. The hotels were full of brilliant 
company. There they danced, there they amused them- 
selves without a thought of the enemy, who yet was 
but a few miles distant. Uniforms were very abundant 
at these parties, where trips to the various camps were 
arranged, and sometimes horseback rides to the ad- 
vanced posts. 

Never did a more elegant multitude crowd to the 
receptions at the White House. Every one knows that 
on these occasions the democratic usage opens the 
doors to whosoever wishes to enter. A cruel trial for 
the President, forced, for an entire evening, to a painful 
hand-shaking with a multitude, not one of whom is 
sympathetic. 

Mr. Lincoln, instantly recognized from his tall and 
spare form, stood near the entrance door of the first 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 1 47 

parlor, his two secretaries by his side, who gave him 
the names of the callers, which he repeated as well as 
possible in the inevitable form of salutation, when he 
thought he had heard correctly. In vain would one, on 
these occasions, look on his bony face for a trace of the 
humor so well known by numerous anecdotes and say- 
ings. One saw there only the strain of absorbing 
thought, struggling with a vulgar ceremony. Inwardly 
a prey to the heaviest cares, bending under the burden 
of a formidable responsibility, he must smile on all 
as if he had really been "charmed to see you." 

The task imposed on Mrs. Lincoln was much easier. 
Always dressed with elegance, a thing she enjoyed, 
surrounded by feminine attentions, she escaped the 
crowding of the multitude, sheltered by the trains of 
the dresses of her entourage. The presence of a certain 
number of generals in uniform was, besides, a diversion 
in her favor, as the callers wished to lose nothing that 
there was to be seen. 

The members of the Cabinet did not appear very 
often at these receptions. They had more important 
duties. Occasionally, however, the broad shoulders 
and massive head of Mr. Stanton, who had just taken 
the place of Mr. Cameron, in the Department of War, 
was seen there, or the tall, venerably insignificant 
form of Mr. Welles, the Secretary of the Navy, of 
whom so much ill has been spoken, — much more, I 
think, than he deserves. 

Mr. Stanton was a prodigious worker, devoted above 
all things to the Union, which he had served already 
with all his power, as attorney-general, in the Cabinet 
of the preceding administration. Determined to have 
it triumph at the price of every sacrifice, he displayed, 
in his new position, a vigorous capacity, which marked 
him as the American Carnot. As he would not be the 



148 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

docile instrument of any party or coterie, he was often 
made the target of very severe attacks. Perhaps a 
few instances of personal favor badly bestowed might 
be found. But the attacks of his enemies — who were 
not generally the friends of the government — could 
not shake him in his position, where, on the contrary, 
he became very strong by his important services. He 
was able, therefore, to fulfil his task, even to the end, 
and, by his energetic work, his enlightened devotion, 
be reckoned amongst the men who contributed most 
efficaciously to save the Republic from the greatest 
dangers it could incur. 

Mr. Seward was the one amongst the Cabinet min- 
isters who appeared to bear the weight of affairs with 
the greatest ease. His part was not, however, the 
less arduous. The management of foreign relations, 
amid complications so delicate and continuall} arising, 
demanded from him a combination of the high quali- 
ties which constitute the statesman. He had to con- 
tend with difficulties of different kinds. On one side, 
he must take care not to irritate the pride of a de- 
mocracy quick to take offence. On the other hand, 
he had to conciliate minds of doubtful friendship, if 
not to conjure away hostile dispositions, which, if they 
became enemies, could throw themselves with a decisive 
weight into the balance of the war. The Confederacy 
was working with all its might to bring about this 
result. It had agents abroad, very active, very cun- 
ning, and not at all scrupulous, who applied themselves 
without rest to influence opinion in favor of the South, 
— in official circles by continual personal efforts, in 
the public through the journals, which they furnished 
with false information and erroneous conclusions. 

Mr. Seward could not always meet this danger with 
equal arms. At Paris, for example, while the l^onfed- 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. 1 49 

erates' agents showed themselves everywhere, put 
themselves in connection with influential men, worked 
the press, and operated on the Bourse, — the United 
States legation, where French was not spoken, was con- 
fined to its official functions, and had no influence, 
outside of that, which could counterbalance the ma- 
noeuvres of its adversaries. 

In spite of all, Mr. Seward, with his pliant and ener- 
getic nature, the clearness of his mind, the surety of 
his judgment, his long experience in public affairs, all 
moderated by the effect which the exercise of public 
opinion always has upon the ardor of party chiefs, 
was successful against all dangers from abroad, and 
baffled the intrigues of the Confederates. In the midst 
of these labors and responsibilities, Mr. Seward, on all 
occasions, preserved his amiable manners and his 
sparkling humor. There was in him a moral and spir- 
itual vigor equal to every trial. 

In 1865, while the Army of the Potomac, returning 
triumphant from its last campaign, awaited its disband- 
ing around Washington, I was passing one day near 
the President's house, when my attention was drawn to 
a pedestrian, who crossed the road a few steps from 
me. A broad Panama hat covered a head confined 
in a surgical contrivance, two flexible stems of which, 
passing around his face, supported his jaw, and termi- 
nated in his mouth. As I walked more slowly#to look 
at him, he turned towards me and saluted me with his 
hand. I recognized Mr. Seward. 

It was the first time I had seen him since a South- 
ern assassin had pierced him with the poniard on that 
fatal night when President Lincoln fell, struck by 
another desperado of the same cause. Such as I had 
known Mr. Seward before, such I found him still, under 
that sinister envelopment of his head, from which it 



150 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

was some time before he was relieved. His elastic 
vitality was proof against both work and wounds. 

It was otherwise with the President, who, in the dark 
hours of his first year of trial, sometimes bent under 
the burden. In January, 1862, I had the honor to dine 
at the White House, where twenty guests were as- 
sembled. The conversation was varied by the observa- 
tions of men who had had different careers, and who 
had passed through different vicissitudes. Mr. Lincoln 
took no part in it. Neither the lively sallies of Mr. X. 
P. Willis nor the inciting remarks of some of the 
ladies could distract him from his interior reflections, 
or lighten the moral and physical fatigue to which he 
\nsibly yielded. 

It was at the time when public opinion, tired of the 
long inaction of the Army of the Potomac, began 
loudlv to demand some revenge for the check of Ball's 
Bluff, and that measures be taken to reestablish the 
navigation of the river, impudenth' interrupted by the 
batteries of the enemy. With this object, a direct 
pressure was made upon the President, Avhose anxiety 
was increased by the illness of General IMcClellan, with 
whom he could not come to an understanding in this 
respect. It was necessary for him to consult those 
generals in whom he had the most confidence, and 
debate with them the military questions, of which he 
was not a competent judge, and which, notwithstand- 
ing, he was called on to decide, on account of his supe- 
rior authority ; a new source of terrible perplexity to 
add to the dreadful political responsibilities which over- 
whelmed him. 

These occasional fits of despondency, however, had 
no influence upon the devotion of the President to his 
dutv. He did not fail in the accomplishment of the 
great task which had devolved upon him. Animated 



MEN AND THINGS AT WASHINGTON. I5I 

by the most sincere patriotism, enlightened by a cer- 
tain political sagacity, guided in his views and in his 
ambitions by an irreproachable honesty, sustained by 
the people, of whom he was less the directing chief 
than the faithful servant, he followed the straight path, 
regulating his steps by the march of events, without 
seeking to hasten or delay the demands of the hour. 
He thus had a career more useful than brilliant during 
his life, but immortalized in his last hour by the conse- 
cration of success and the sanctification of martyrdom. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

Opening of the campaign of 1862 — Disagreements at Washington — 
Adoption of McClellan's plan — Military excursion in Virginia — 
Organization of army corps — Embarking for Fortress Monroe 
— Fight of the Monitor and the Merrimac — Disembarking at Hampton 
— The surrounding country — Newport News — March upon York- 
town — The beseeching Virginians. 

The campaign of 1862 was first opened in the West, 
in the month of February, by the capture of Fort 
Henry and of the fortified camp of Donelson. The 
former surrendered on the 6th, to Commodore Foote, 
after a few hours* bombardment ; the latter, on the 
15th, to General Grant, after three days of fighting. 
This double success gave the victors sixteen thou- 
sand prisoners, fifty pieces of artillery, and quantities 
of small arms, munitions of war, and provisions of 
all kinds. But its most important result was to break 
the line of defence of the enemy on the borders of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, and to cut his communica- 
tions from the East to the West, in capturing from him 
the only railroad which he could use for that purpose. 
Thus he was obliged immediately to evacuate Nashville 
and Columbus. 

At the same time. General Burnside, landing in North 
Carolina, at the head of a large expedition, established 
himself firmly on Roanoke Island, after capturing some 
strong fortifications, a large number of cannon, and 
more than three thousand prisoners. 

The Army of the Potomac received all this good 

152 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 53 

news in its winter quarters, where the hesitations of 
the general-in-chief and the irresolution of the Presi- 
dent, relative to the final adoption of a plan of cam- 
paign, continued to hold it. The great question was, to 
know if the enemy should be attacked from the front, 
as Mr Lincoln evidently thought, or if their position 
should be turned, by means of Chesapeake Bay, to 
throw upon their rear all the forces which were not 
absolutely necessary for the security of Washington, as 
was proposed by General McClellan. The difference 
of opinion was so great that the secret was soon known 
through the army. Thus it was known that the Presi- 
dent had given an order for a general movement of the 
forces, both on land and sea, on the 22d of February, 
with the peremptory order, " that the chiefs of Depart- 
ments, and especially the Secretaries of War and of 
the Navy, with all their subordinates, and the general- 
in-chief as well as all the other commanders and subor- 
dinates, in command of both land and naval forces, 
will be held, each in his own sphere, to a strict account- 
ability for the prompt execution of this order." 

The idea of such an order was not happy, and its 
execution subject to so many plausible objections that 
General McClellan had no trouble in getting it revoked. 
The 22d of February passed by without any other 
demonstration than the salvos of artillery in commem- 
oration of the birthday of Washington. But, right- 
fully or wrongfully, the impression remained that the 
President had been compelled to exercise his authority, 
to force the general-in-chief from his inaction. 

So, also, the creation of army corps was strongly 
recommended, as a necessary measure in the organiza- 
tion of an army of a hundred and fifty thousand men. 
General McClellan was opposed to it. Without deny- 
ing its advantages in a military point of view,^ he 



154 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

wanted, it was said, to take the time to choose the 
generals the most capable of taking command, accord- 
ing to their merits. But, as his choice had not been 
made at the time of commencing active operations, the 
President took the affair in his own hands, and, by an 
order dated March 8, divided the Army of the Potomac 
into four corps, and himself appointed the commanders. 

The same day, a council of war of twelve generals 
of division was called by the President to pronounce 
between the two plans of campaign under discussion. 
The commander-in-chief had also, on his own account, 
to explain his plans to his subordinates and submit them 
to their judgment. Nothing could have been better, if 
he had taken the initiative, for in such a case, in asking 
their advice, he would, nevertheless, have remained the 
judge in the last resort, and free, consequently, to act 
as he pleased. But here he was placed in the false 
position of pleading his cause before his inferiors. If 
they preferred other plans than his, it would have been 
necessary for him to resign his command, for it does 
not comport with the dignity of a general-in-chief to 
charge himself with the execution of a plan which he 
disapproves, when, above all, it has been dictated to him 
in that manner. I do not know if General McClellan 
looked upon it in this way ; but, in any case, he was put 
to the trial. Eight generals were in favor of his plan 
of campaign, only four were in favor of a different 
one. 

At this time, a singular coincidence gave rise to many 
comments. The decision to open the campaign in the 
rear of the enemy's line was taken in secret council on 
the 8th of March — on the 9th, the Confederates had 
disappeared from Manassas. 

Where had they gone to ? They had fallen back up- 
on a safer position, in rear of the line of the Rappa- 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 55 

hannock, thus baffling the strategic combination which 
General McClellan had announced the evening before 
for the first time. 

Whatever was the cause of that sudden retreat, its 
effect was to produce an immediate general movement 
in the Army of the Potomac. The following night, 
Keyes' division received the order to move out on the 
Leesburg road, and on the morning of the loth we 
were 01 route by the way of Chain Bridge, at last bid- 
ding adieu to our winter quarters. 

One would have said we were going to a fete. Offi- 
cers and soldiers, equally tired of camp life, wished 
nothing better than to march upon the enemy, and 
when they debouched from the bridge, upon the saered 
soil of Virginia, as the V^irginians proudly designated 
their fields, it was in the midst of hurrahs for General 
Peck, who at this moment rejoined the head of the 
column. General Keyes had his share, when he over- 
took us at the first halting-place, galloping and saluting 
like the bronze caricature of Jackson on the public square. 

We stopped on the road, to let pass McCall's division, 
which had just left its camp. Nothing could be more 
dreary than these ruined huts, on a field dry and bare. 
If we were happy in leaving Tenallytown, how much 
more joyful must the regiments have been who had 
passed the winter in this desolate place. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon, we reached a high 
hill, which, from the extensive view it commanded, was 
called Prospect Hill. The enemy had just evacuated 
the position where the division established its bivouac 
across the Leesburg road, the right resting on the Poto- 
mac, the artillery in the centre, and the left covered by 
a regiment of cavalry. The pickets being posted, and 
the fires lighted, every one supped gayly and slept 
soundly till morning. 



156 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Three whole days were spent there waiting orders, 
which did not reach us till the evening of the 13th, 
when we returned to the neighborhood of Chain Bridge, 
where we had to wait two more days, and, above all, 
two nights, hard to forget. 

On the 14th it began to rain ; as we had no tents, 
the men endeavored to construct shelter for them- 
selves, of branches which they cut in the surrounding 
woods. But the rain passed through them, and so thor- 
oughly soaked the ground that it was soon a vast field 
of mud. Not being able to lie on the ground, we had 
to pass the night standing, or seated upon logs around 
the fires, kept burning with difficulty. 

As for myself, it happened that I was field officer of 
the day of the division, so that I had to visit the 
camps of three brigades, then the advanced posts and 
pickets. The night was so dark that one could not 
see six paces from him. The rain fell without cessa- 
tion, and the country was absolutely unknown to me. 
The service being, as yet, very imperfectly organized, I 
received from headquarters, with my instructions, only 
approximate information as to the position of the troops. 
No orderly was, at that time, to be had ; the night ad- 
vanced ; I must set out on my nightly round without a 
guide. 

So long as I had only to look up the guard duty in 
the regiments, it was easy enough to find my direction 
by the fires, which blazed up everywhere ; but when I 
had to leave the neighborhood of these bright firesides, 
to follow the uncertain picket line, the task became 
more and more difficult. The withdrawal of the enemy, 
the bad weather, and the negligence of several subaltern 
officers had caused great irregularity in the placing of 
the advance posts. In reality there was no line. 
Only disconnected pieces, disposed without any regard 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 57 

to each other. Their fires were usually concealed by 
the unevenness of the ground, or by the thick woods. 
Twice I was completely lost in looking for them, having 
neither star, compass, nor roads to guide me in the 
darkness. In the woods I ran against trees, or invisible 
branches whipped me in the face and tore my clothes. 
In the fields, sometimes my horse sank in the mud to 
the fetlocks, sometimes he slipped on the wet stones, 
sometimes he stopped short before some obstacle that 
my eyes could scarcely see. At one time I thought I 
had found a road. It appeared to be a few feet in front 
of me ; happily the instinct of the horse was superior 
to the judgment of the man. He refused obstinately 
to advance a step, throwing himself one side, and pro- 
testing, by groaning, against the injustice of the spur. 
I concluded that my horse must have some grave reason 
for conduct so different from his usual disciplined habits, 
and we took another direction, without further contest. 
The fact was that what I had taken for a road was but 
the slope of a sandbank, of twelve or fifteen feet. If 
the horse had yielded, we would have rolled together 
to the bottom of the ditch, where it is hard telling in 
what condition we would have been found in the 
morning. 

At last, with great troubl©, I finished my rounds, and 
returned to my regiment before daybreak, where my 
quartermaster had succeeded in getting a wedge-tent, 
under shelter of which I was able to draw up my report 
in writing. The report was that the service was dan- 
gerously insufificient in front of the enemy ; that the 
camps were poorly guarded, or not guarded at all ; that 
the pickets were placed without any regard to connect- 
ing ; and that the posts were so separated, one from 
another, that they could be carried off by the enemy 
before any one knew of his approach. This was an 



158 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

evil, to which it was necessary to apply a remedy. 
The trouble arose from a want of discipline amongst 
the volunteers, who thought strict obedience unneces- 
sary if there was no actual danger. The remedy was 
experience, and service in front of the enemy. 

The rain continued to fall all the following day. 
What made it worse was that from the hills, where we 
received the storm on our backs, we could see our camp 
at Tenallytown still standing. 

" Since the enemy has left, and we do not follow," 
said the soldiers, " what good is it to remain here and 
be soaked, when we could so soon dry ourselves in our 
vacant tents .-*" 

" Bah ! " replied the old soldier of the Crimea and 
Algiers, " it is to season the conscripts. We will see 
many worse days than this." 

As if to cut short this punishment of Tantalus, the 
quartermaster received an order to take down the cov- 
eted tents, which were to be stored in Washington. 
This was done in the afternoon, and we had nothing to 
excite our envy on that side, when, after a second night 
as bad as the first, we had an order to return to our 
camp. 

An hour after we were there, to find only that every- 
thing which did not belong to government had been 
pillaged, in spite of a guard of twenty or thirty lame 
men, left behind. A band of second-hand dealers had 
knocked down everything, and had left none of our 
winter comforts. Notwithstanding all this, we were 
better there than in our bivouac, while waiting the 
order to leave finally, and to receive our rubber shelter- 
tents, which were at last distributed to us. 

The waiting lasted eight long days, during which, 
conformably to the President's orders, the Army of the 
Potomac was organized in five army corps, as follows : — 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 59 

First Corps — Major-General, I. McDowell; com- 
posed of Franklin's, McCall's, and King's divisions. 

Second Corps — Brigadier-General, E. V. Sumner ; 
composed of Richardson's, Blenker's, and Sedgwick's 
divisions. 

Third Corps — Brigadier-General, P. Heintzelraan ; 
composed of Porter's, Hooker's, and Hamilton's di- 
visions. 

Fourth Corps — Brigadier-General, E. D. Keyes ; com- 
posed of Couch's, Smith's, and Casey's divisions. 

Fifth Corps — Major-General, N. P. Banks ; composed 
of Williams' and Shield's divisions. 

So that each corps was composed of three divisions, 
as each division of three brigades. 

The cavalry regiments remained provisionally at- 
tached to their respective divisions. 

Orders and counter-orders succeeded each other 
incessantly during that week. One day we were to go 
to Alexandria, to embark ; the next day, the transports 
were coming to Georgetown to take us. Then the 
vessels were delayed ; then they were out of coal. At 
last we sailed. 

It was the 26th of March. The five regiments of 
the brigade embarked in the evening, on six steam- 
boats, which descended the river together to Alex- 
andria, where they stopped to wait for the two other 
brigades of Couch's division, and took in tow some 
schooners, loaded with horses, forage, and artillery. 

Never had that small inland port seen such a sight. 
The river was crowded with vessels of every kind and 
size. The wharves were covered with troops, waiting 
their turn to embark as soon as the steamboats came 
alongside the docks to receive them. The little tugboats 
furrowed the waves in every direction, leaving in the air 
their long plumes of smoke. Night even did not sus- 



l6o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

pend the work. The embarking was continued by the 
light of fires kindled along the banks, in the midst 
of signals exchanged between the vessels. As soon 
as they were loaded, the steamers anchored in the 
stream, in the position assigned to the command of 
which they formed a part. 

The sun of the 27th rose in a cloudless sky, and 
found the whole division embarked. At a signal from 
the Daniel Webster, on which was General Couch, the 
boats containing the first brigade moved out. Our 
orders were to proceed to Fortress Monroe, where the 
Fifth Corps had preceded us, moving as fast as we 
could, without regard to other vessels. It happened 
that the Croton of New York, on which I had em- 
barked with eight of my companies, was the best 
sailer. She gained on the rest of the division so. fast 
as to be out of sight before reaching that long arm of 
an inner sea, called the Chesapeake Bay. 

The garrison of Fort Washington saluted our pas- 
sage with hurrahs ; Mount Vernon, the mansion of the 
father of his country, appeared to us an instant, amidst 
its dense shade ; the rebel batteries, now abandoned, 
which had interrupted the navigation of the river, 
looked on us silently as we passed. 

Then, little by little the river widened, the hills be- 
came lower, and night descended upon us. 

At daylight we were at Fortress Monroe, and awaited 
at anchor the rest of the brigade, which soon re- 
joined us. 

Fortress Monroe is a work of the first order, con- 
structed in accordance with the best military rules. 
Situated at the point of a tongue of land forming one 
of the sides of Hampton Bay, it commanded the mouth 
of the James River, in the middle of which is a group 
of rocks, called the Ripraps. Since that time a new 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. l6l 

fort has been built on them, under whose guns is the 
outer channel. 

There, as at Alexandria, the river was covered with 
vessels. But one alone drew all eyes and absorbed all 
attention ; this vessel resembled nothing that had, up 
to that time, ever been seen on the water. If one 
figures to himself a flat rape-seed at the level of the 
water, without bulwarks or rigging, recalling the little 
narrow boards, sharpened at the ends, that the children 
sail in the streams, and carrying in the centre a tower 
broader than it is high, then one can form an idea of 
what the Monitor was. 

This little vessel, so inoffensive in appearance, was 
the most recent and the most terrible engine of war 
devised by Yankee ingenuity. 

Twenty days before there had sailed out of Norfolk 
another formidable invention, with which the enemy 
thought himself certain to destroy both our vessels of 
war and our merchantmen. It was like an enormous 
tortoise, carrying under his bullet-proof shell immense 
cannon, and at his bow a long spur. This floating bat- 
tery was the transformed hull of the frigate Merrimac, 
which had fallen into the hands of the Confederates at 
the taking of Norfolk. 

On coming out into Hampton Roads, the Merrimac 
sailed directly for the United States frigate Cumber- 
land, and, paying no attention to a broadside, which 
rebounded from her sides like a handful of dry peas, 
struck her twice midships, stove in her quarter, and 
the frigate sank. She returned then towards the frigate 
Congress, which, seeing herself powerless to avoid 
certain destruction, struck her flag, after having run 
aground near the shore, which did not save her. 
This was the work of the first day, interrupted by 
the nisrht. 



1 62 FOUE. YILAJtS WITH THE PjTOiL^C ARMY. 

It appeared as tho^ugh the fate of all the vesseLs 
aroand Fortress Monroe, and of many others, was cer- 
tainly settl-ed The nert morning, the Merrim.ac, which 
had withdrawn during the night, mider cover of Sewell's 
Point, m'Oved o^ to finish a third frigate, the ^Nlinne- 
sota, which had nm aground the evening before, near 
Newport News, when there appeared in the distance 
an objiect of a singular shape, whose character was 
betrayed only by a long trail of smoke, indicating a 
steamer. It passed in front of the fort without stop- 
ping, and steamed toward the Merrimac 

From all the vessels, and from all points of the river 
banks where an eye regarded them, her approach was 
anxiously watched. As she came nearer, the form of 
a fiat vessel could be distingushed, and tbe cylindrical 
shape of a small tower, and the starry banner fioating 
at the end of a sbort mast ; but no human form ap- 
peared on the deck washed by the waves. 

A strange enigma. Tbe rebels said, laughing : " What 
is that great cheese-box set on a raft ? Do the Yankees 
intend to supply us with cheese ? " 

But the little Monitor still came nearer. 

All at o-nce, from the side of that machine, which 
so excited the hnmor of the Confederates, burst forth a 
white cloud, accompanied by a flash of lightning ; a 
dap of thunder shook the atmosphere, and a hea\T 
mass of iron, weighing i6S potinds, bounded on the 
shell of the MerriTaac. The tower did not so much 
resemble a ch-eese now. 

The combat lasted three hours, during which the 
two adversaries bombarded each other a outrance, and 
nearly at a muzzle length. The armam^ent of the iler- 
rimac was composed of eight eight-inch guns and two 
Armstrong hundred-pounders in broadside.* But the 

^ S5x majt-isxh JJaMs^ta. gTunts amid two tkirTj-cwo-poaiiwder Eirooke ruffles 
^TT, --'^-. -i; aaiud seTrea-iniida Brooike rifle* or; ':■ -^.'- ' V;tp s^--: t:tern. 



[ 



tower of tlie MtnuitxHr toonied id^mmd kseili, £xid iss rw>p 

eiex>ie3HEnc3i gnnais : 

vnlDerabiiitj' oftb^.".: .;_..- 

jjectiles mjioned notMiag esrcepi tine ■ , 

Tlie Menimac, more diffiacijk to imaEi.i,- -... - _.- ... - 

TolaenLbille cm aoccwmt of oipem pofin-ijole? in ijer r.r- 

injured th^i £ na|:bMii w:as mecessEry ro ^ssas; iii: -v- 
retnam to Norfolk, irbeuce s^e asever vesriTr^i? omt iw» 
S;g55i .amowiier aattHe. 

WheB ve £mve><2 mi F.>rtr^ess Mr>r.-\x.. . "'? 
Monitor, ar ancljor, bict i-«r£y$ jQBuaicir stc- ^ . ., 
-Bratcbed. nigiit aad oay, tor a possabHie sorcae <M tlie 
Merriiaac, — like a Ja^itsar watchimg tbe sonac <o4 a 
\roTi3DQed bttJI 

In the iDamiQ|[, tie bir%a«3e reoetved oinfcrs: to iaiad 
ii Hjtmptoin, where we inived betcwe nooa. Tfee sa33»e 
trani of cargamisainloin, ol whicli we had aSready ieik tise 
eifects in more than one instance, kepa ^s tJse-Te the 
whole day. There was no order at the diser: 
no superior amthoriiy directevi the detjailis o: - 
»ppT>c»ach to the landing was obstracttvi bv sisips p::> v 
ini;, without any oraex. into the narrow pass by whuch 
the wharf must be reached. The lar. •^.: - -;< accoim- 
p3ished ven' slowly, in the mids: oJ the . . assd xS? 

transports, when dischar^iiis^i. co^jd with dinicoity r. ..k.^ 
thedr way oiit through ihe compact r^ass of vess^^js 
seeking lo take their places^ 

Hour after hour, the Cxoton waited its turn and vlid 
not get any nearer, passed by : 
the more skilful. I sent K\^ 

which ddayed roe, and receix^ simply the teply t» d* 
niY best- ''Profit by the firs: , " an ai - 

me. "T\->h on/" said the c >::v v^t 



164 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

gade. I saw General Couch and General Peck going off 
on horseback, without appearing to trouble themselves 
about our landing. Upon which I decided to do mv 
best, and, since it was " every one for himself," to force 
my way to the wharf by main strength. We succeeded, 
thanks to our powerful engines, and thus our disera- 
barkment on the Peninsula was effected. 

The first sight presented to our eyes was that of the 
ruins of Hampton. Hampton was, before the war, a 
charming little town, at the head of the bay bearing its 
name. It had its churches, its banks, its hotels, its 
villas, its shady gardens. Southern families flocked 
there during the summer, to take sea baths and enjoy 
gayly the other pleasures of the season. Of all that, 
nothing now remained, — nothing but masses of ruins 
lying on the ground, skirts of walls blackened by the 
fire, broken columns marking the fagade of some public 
building, and a few straggling bushes of the devastated 
gardens surviving here and there. Forced to evacuate 
the place, the Confederates, under the inspiration of 
some barbarous boast, or obeying the drunken notion 
of some of their generals, had burned the village and 
ruined the whole population, thus dispersed and left 
shelterless. 

The sun was setting on that scene of desolation 
when the regiment began to march. The country was 
fiat, with no hills, and of a character entirely new to us. 
The vegetation was ver}' vigorous, judging by the great 
forests, under which the road soon plunged. Above 
all, the immense pines, arising to a great height without 
branches, and then spreading out like parasols. There 
were no low branches to intercept the view of that vast 
dome of verdure supported by gigantic pillars, and 
shaken by the breeze with sonorous rustlings, and which 
the moon lighted up with silvery rays. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. • 1 65 

Sometimes the road passed along on an embankment 
and crossed over swamps with flowery borders, where 
the vines twined around the great trees and hunsr down 
in arches of verdure over the marshes, like a trap set 
by nature for man. 

The march appeared short to us in the midst of these 
novel sights, until we reached our camping ground near 
Newport News. There we were to wait the two divis- 
ions of the Fourth Corps. The division of General Smith 
arrived about the same time that we did, that of Gen- 
eral Casey joined us April 2. 

In the interval, I took occasion to visit Newport 
News, where the brigade of General Mansfield occupied 
a well appointed camp on the banks of the James. 
The troops composing it were in good condition, and 
showed in their drill efficiency quite enough to enable 
them to meet the enemy. But they w^ere not put in 
action until after the battle of Fair Oaks. 

Up to that time, they had not fired a shot, except 
against the Merrimac. It was, in fact, directly in front 
of Newport News, and hardly a cable's length from the 
shore, that the ]\Ierriraac had attacked and sunk the 
Cumberland, whose mast and rigging still showed above 
the water. The brigade was in the best position to 
follow all the incidents of the combat. It had even the 
honor of participating in it. If its field-pieces were 
without effect upon the ironclad vessel, the bullets from 
its muskets could, at least, penetrate its port-holes. 
The shore was, consequently, covered with sharp- 
shooters. 

When the Congress ran aground within short range, 
and struck her flag, the two Confederate steamers 
Yorktown and Jamestown endeavored to take possession 
of her. But the sharpshooters covered the frigate with 
a fire so strong and well directed that it was impossi- 



1 66 . FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC AKSTi. 

ble for them to do so. The Merrimac then set her on 
fire, and a part of the crew perished in her. It was, it 
appears, one of the sharpshooters of the Mansfield 
Ivigade who wounded Captain Buchanan of the ^Slerri- 
mar, at the moment when he was looking out of the 
port-hole. 

General McClellan arrived April 2. He had under 
his hand, at that time, two army corps, the artiller>' 
belonging to them, and a few regiments of cavalr>- ; that 
is to say, more than sixty thousand men for duty. It 
was more than snflScient to drive back the enemy. The 
forward movement began on the 4th, the Third Corps 
taking the right, toward Yorktown, the First the left, 
toward Warwick Court House. 

The roads were narrow and muddy, and the two col- 
umns stretched along almost interminably, each regi- 
ment marching by the flank, one after another, with 
the artillery in the intervals of the brigades, the wagons 
and ambnknces between the divisions. — the whole 
covered by a line of flankers. 

This order ci march, which, in any other region, 
would have been exceedingly dangerous, was the only 
one that the cbaizcta: of the coontry permitted. It is 
certain that, if the enemy could have, by any possi- 
bility, attacked in force any point whatever in that 
long line, it would have been thrown in disorder and 
part (rf it destroyed before any aid could have arrived. 
But the same natural obstacles which imposed on us 
the necessity of marching in that manner prevented 
the Confederates from moving in any other way. This 
e^)]ains why this method of moving, entirely wrong on 
general prindi^es, could be used without any unfortu- 
nate results. 

In our advance upon Yorktown, we marched ven,- 
The country was little ~ " 



COMMEN'CEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 67 

formation as to the position and strength of the force 
we had in front of us was very unreliable. When the 
head of the column reached the point where the Big 
Bethel road branches off, it was thought possible that 
the enemy was still behind the intrenchments which he 
had there raised. Consequently, I was ordered to guard 
against an attack from that direction, with my regiment 
and four rifled guns, until the division and its train had 
passed safely by, which took all the afternoon, and 
compelled me to remain there till the next morning. 
However, the enemy had evacuated Big Bethel a long 
time before, when the skirmishers of Heintzelman had 
appeared. They were the only ones who could have 
approached us from that direction. 

Nevertheless, we passed the night under arms, 
without having to contend with any other enemy 
than some troops of hogs, half wild and complete 
rebels, who furnished a welcome addition to the 
soldiers' supper. 

In the morning, we rejoined the brigade a few miles 
from there. The small number of houses, poor or fine, 
which were on the line of our march, were all aban- 
doned. Their occupants had left on our approach. 

I remember, where the road enters a pine wood, near 
a deserted hut, we met four children crouched at the 
side of the road. The oldest was no more than twelve. 
A few rags scarcely covered their feeble bodies. Their 
hollow eyes, their pale faces, eloquently told of what 
they had already suffered. Their mother was dead, 
and their father had abandoned them. They wept, 
while asking for something to eat. The soldiers im- 
mediately gave them enough provisions to last them 
several days. Blankets were not wanting for the little 
ones. The weather was warm, and the sides of the 
road were lined with them. But what became of these 



1 68 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

children ? One does not like to think about such things. 
This is the horrible side of war. 

That day we passed by the Young mill, a good posi- 
tion and well fortified, and where the enemy might have 
given us much trouble if he had defended it. But he 
had left it on our approach, and we found there only 
some tents, where a few regiments had passed the win- 
ter. They served us as a shelter against a pouring ram, 
during the short halt we made there. It was, however, 
only a passing storm. It lasted but a short time, and 
the sun shone out only the warmer for it, when we ar- 
rived at the Young plantation. 

This Young, who was then serving in the rebel army 
as quartermaster, was a sort of lord in that part of the 
country. The house was his ; the farm and mill were 
his ; the fields and the forests were his ; his were the 
cattle and the slaves. It seemed as though we could 
not get out of his domain. But we had no time to 
delay. A sharp cannonade told us that Smith's divis- 
ion had met the enemy it had been looking for. We 
hastened our advance until we were a half a mile from 
Warwick Court House, where we halted near some 
artillery, until the firing, becoming more and more 
distant, had informed us that General Smith continued 
his march in pursuit of the retreating Confederates. 

Warwick Court House is, as its name indicates, the 
seat of justice of the county ; the county seat is uni- 
formly located at some central point where several 
roads converge. Their occupation is therefore of a 
certain importance from a military point of view. The 
criminal and civil cases which are tried there during 
the sessions bring there firstly the interested parties, 
and along with them a goodly number of business men 
and men of leisure, which makes it the principal centre 
of reunion amongst these sparsely settled countries, 



COMMENXEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 69 

which are connected only by a few roads, bad at all 
times of the year, and nearly impassable in the winter. 

Nevertheless, the "Court House" is seldom larger 
than a little village. Two or three houses of residents ; 
a general country store, whose counter answers for a 
postoffice ; a tavern, with two or three whitewashed 
rooms, serves for a stopping-place for as many trav- 
ellers as the beds in common will hold ; some huts and 
some kitchen gardens, perhaps a church. Such is gen- 
erally the collection grouped around the brick building 
where Justice gives her decisions. 

I had not the time to visit Warwick Court House. 
The regiment had scarcely stacked arms when contin- 
ued firing was heard on the picket line, where two of 
my companies were detached. Some aids started on 
a gallop to find out the cause, and they soon returned 
with the report that a few armed marauders had, with 
a zeal indicative of a thorough lack of discipline, en- 
gaged in the chase of a boar, supposed to be wild, 
because he ran loose in the woods, as was the common 
custom everywhere on the Peninsula. It is needless 
to .say that this was directly in violation of orders, 
which forbade the discharge of a gun anywhere unless 
aimed at the enemy. 

All the colonels were ordered to send an officer to 
put a stop to the noise and arrest the delinquents. It 
was thought doubtful, and with good reason, whether 
the soldiers would obey any officers other than those of 
their respective regiments. Remembering the manner 
in which the service of advance posts had been neg- 
lected at Chain Bridge, I preferred to assure myself 
with my own eyes of the state of affairs in my two 
companies. 

I had the satisfaction of finding everything in order 
in that part of the line. Not but that there might have 



170 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

been some of the red kepis amongst the hog-hunters ; 
but as the regiment was armed with rifled muskets of a 
French model, and the stacks of arms were strictly 
guarded, they had only their sabre-bayonets, so that 
they could attack the porcine genus only with their 
side-arms, inside of the picket line, to cross which was 
more dangerous to the hunters than to the hunted. 

The detachment of the Fifty-fifth formed the left of 
the line resting on the marshes bordering the James. 
One company was deployed, the other in reserve near 
a large sawmill, which a few months before had em- 
ployed numerous workmen. All were gone, led away, 
willingly or unwillingly, by the Confederate troops. 
But the women and children were left behind. 

In front of the mill — noiseless, motionless, lifeless — 
appeared a dozen wretched huts, grouped together on 
a small rise of ground. Several women came quickly 
out, when I stopped my horse in front of the abandoned 
building, to see what use could be made of it in case of 
an attack. They had recognized in me a superior 
officer, and had hastened to meet me, some alone, 
others leading a child by the hand, and one with a baby 
in her arms. They soon surrounded me, asking me, 
with an air at once fearful and suppliant, to protect 
them against the marauders, from whom they had al- 
ready received an insolent visit. 

I looked through their poor dwellings, which con- 
sisted of a single room, answering at the same time for 
a kitchen and for a bedchamber. Only one of them 
had a partition and a certain air of cleanliness which 
attracted my attention. It was occupied by a Northern 
woman, blonde, still young, the same one who had met 
me with a baby in her arms. She told me that she and 
her husband were from Vermont. As he was a good 
mechanic he had received favorable propositions to 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. I7I 

work in Virginia, and, eighteen months before, they had 
come there to live. Everything went well at first ; but 
soon the imminence of war threw all in disorder 
throughout the South. The sawmill did little work ; 
then the workmen were no longer paid. The Ver- 
monter wished to return North with his family ; never- 
theless, the hope of receiving what was due him kept 
him from week to week. When, at last, he saw that 
he must lose his money, it was too late. His savings 
were exhausted, and the authorities were opposed to his 
departure. He was forced to remain at the moment 
when, after long privations and trouble of every kind, 
the approach of our troops promised to give them a 
chance to return home ; the rebels had enrolled him 
in their ranks by force. 

This tale, related with tears, had all the air of 
truth, and was confirmed, besides, by the evidence of 
the other forsaken ones. 

All of these did not belong to the little colony. A 
part of them had come there to take refuge from their 
lonely houses, where they did not dare to remain on our 
approach. With minds terrified by the absurd tales 
designedly spread by the rebels against us, they had 
fled with their children, leaving everything they had, 
rather than fall into the hands of men who were de- 
picted to them as bandits without faith or law, ready 
to commit violence, murder, or pillage. The women at 
the sawmill had shared their beds and their provisions 
with them, and they were all together, trembling, fear- 
ful, and not daring to believe they would receive the 
protection they implored. 

One only, more resolute, did not give way to these 
exaggerated terrors. She was a Virginian. Misery 
had changed, but not destroyed, her beauty, the char- 
acter of which was shown in her large black eyes, her 



172 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

regular features, and in her abundant hair, to which the 
want of care gave naturally that negligent appearance 
which has since become a work of art on the heads of 
our ladies a la mode. Her spareness was draped with 
a certain air, in the folds of a dress of plain wool. 

" I do not suppose," she said to me, " that you have 
come to make war on women and children. However, 
some of your men came here a few hours ago, when 
the cannon were firing on the other side of Warwick. 
They penetrated everywhere, and carried off whatever 
suited them. We have nothing left to keep soul and 
body together, except a few chickens, a little flour, and 
a little corn ; to take that away from us is to condemn 
us and our children to die of hunger. Is that vi^hat you 
wish to do .'' " 

"No," I said, "we wish simply to punish the guilty 
and protect the innocent." 

" I do not know," replied she, " whom you call the 
guilty ; my husband went away with our army." 

The other women looked with some uneasiness upon 
the turn the conversation had taken. At the last words 
of the Virginian, one of them pulled her dress quietly, 
and whispered some words in her ear, which I did not 
hear, but the sense of which it was not difficult to 
guess. 

" Why not ! " replied the one speaking to me, look- 
ing firmly at me. " My husband has done Ids duty, as 
this one has done his own. If he is a gentleman, he 
will understand that." 

She was silent, appearing to wait a reply. 

" I am not here," I told her, "to enter into the ques- 
tion whether your husband did his duty, or was a traitor 
in abandoning you, — but to alleviate as much as I 
can the evils which those whom he has followed have 
brought upon your heads." 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAMPAIGN. 1 73 

" Yes, yes," cried the others, with eagerness. " The 
colonel is right. He will protect us. — Will you not, 
sir, prevent your soldiers from taking the bread out of 
our mouths .■' " 

" Certainly," I replied. " But you must understand 
that it is not the soldiers who are disposed to injure 
you. On the contrary, they will protect you against 
the rascals whose depredations are forbidden and pun- 
ished in our army." 

I rejoined the reserve company posted on the other 
side of the ravine and ordered the captain to send two 
men as guard to keep off marauders from those un- 
happy women, who were, at least, able to sleep peace- 
fully the following night. The next morning the regi- 
ment departed to relieve the Second Rhode Island on 
the banks of the Warwick River. 



^ CHAPTER IX. 

APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 

Siege of Yorktown — Attack on Lee's mill — The Harwood farm — 
Amongst the sharpshooters — The man hunt — Visit of the general- 
in-chief — Faults of administration — A black snake mayonnaise — 
Marching-out of the Confederate troops — The enemy abandons his 
positions — Evacuation of Yorktown. 

The Virginian peninsula, as is well known, is formed 
by the course, nearly parallel, of the James and York 
rivers, which both empty into the Chesapeake. Ten 
miles above the mouth of the York, upon the right 
hand, is situated the small fortified town of Yorktown, 
which owes its first celebrity to the capitulation of 
Lord Cornwallis, in 1781, after a siege in which Mar- 
quis Lafayette took a brilliant part. In the month of 
April, 1862, the Confederates had extended and com- 
pleted the defences so as to command with their artil- 
lery the ground between the town and the small river 
called the Warwick. The latter rises about a mile and 
a half from Yorktown towards the south, emptying into 
the James, thus crossing the peninsula, whose breadth 
at that point is only ten or twelve miles. This was a 
natural obstacle, which the enemy had already improved 
by raising the water at the fords, by means of dams, and 
covering the more exposed positions by protected bat- 
teries. At the time of our arrival, Magruder's Corps, 
which opposed us, had, at the most, ten thousand men. 
If a vigorous attack had been made at the time of 
our first approach, nothing could have prevented our 
forcing a passage at some point. Broken anywhere, 
the line could not have been held an instant, and York- 

174 



I 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 1 75 

town, pressed on all sides, would have been ours in a 
few days. Unhappily, only a too long delayed, feeble, 
and isolated attack was made. Too long delayed, 
because it was not made till the i6th, eleven days after 
our arrival ; isolated, because only a few companies of 
Vermont troops were used ; unskilful, because the point 
chosen for assault was precisely the one most strongly 
fortified, the one which offered the most difficulties, 
and consequently the least chances of success. The 
result was that our force fought bravely, but uselessly, 
for more than an hour, in the rifle-pits captured from 
the enemy, and that it ended in being driven back to 
the river with considerable loss. 

The companies sacrificed in that unfortunate affair 
belonged to the division of General W. F. Smith, who 
acted on direct orders from General McClellan. Gen- 
eral Keyes disclaimed any responsibility for it, saying 
openly that he had not even been informed of it before- 
hand, although the troops engaged belonged to his 
corps. 

From the very first, the majority of the generals had 
advised forcing the Warwick lines without delay. The 
commander-in-chief, engineer officer in all his instincts, 
preferred digging ditches, opening parallels, and placing 
batteries around Yorktown. The former asked simply 
to beat the enemy by the power of an irresistible supe- 
riority ; the latter wished to reduce the place by the 
scientific method, so dear to special schools. Such 
being the fact, is it far out of the way to suspect that 
he ordered the attack of Lee's mill less with the reso- 
lution to make it successful than with the thought of 
demonstrating, by its want of success, the superiority 
of his other plans ? Quod erat demonstranduvi. 

However that might have been, the siege was re- 
solved upon ; the army sat down accordingly, and Magru- 



176 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

der was able to await without danger, and receive 
without hurry, the reenforcements he needed. 

Peck's brigade was on the extreme left of the army, 
near the mouth of the river, opposite Mulberry Island, 
where the enemy had quite a strong garrison. The 
Warwick, before emptying into the James, describes at 
this point a sharp turn, around a point of land which, 
from its shape, made a salient angle in the enemy's 
defensive line. This position was assigned to the Fifty- 
fifth. 

On our side, the bank was higher, which gave our 
sharpshooters some advantage. On the other hand, 
the enemy had two batteries, which commanded all the 
ground which we occupied, and whose fire would have 
troubled us very much if it had not been for large 
woods which hid our tents from the eyes of the Con- 
federates. These woods extended along the water, and 
covered the point of the triangle, leaving some culti- 
vated land at its base only, in the midst of which was 
the Harwood farm. An excellent position to accustom 
our men to fire. It was in our examination of this 
ground that we first heard the enemy's balls whistle, 
and on the establishment of our pickets that we first 
fired on the enemy. 

At nightfall, the rations having been two days behind, 
I sent twenty-five men, under command of a lieutenant, 
to the farm buildings, with an order to bring away every 
suspicious person they found there, and also to report 
if they found anything which could answer the place of 
our missing rations and forage. They found the house 
completely abandoned, but abundantly provided with 
provisions. The farmer, it appeared, kept a country 
store. He had left there a large amount of excellent 
salt provisions, flour, cheese, sugar, etc. He had corn 
in his barns, cattle in his stables, fowls in his barn- 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. £77 

yard. The detachment returned loaded with the booty, 
which was distributed equally amongst the companies, 
and for several days the regiment, independent of the 
commissary, lived as in the land of cocagne, in the midst 
of abundance and table delicacies such as were never 
seen in camp before, and such as we never saw again. 

Unfortunately, this godsend lasted but a very short 
time. The next morning the news was spread through 
the neighboring regiments, and in the afternoon a large 
number of visitors was attracted to the store. The 
first comers crept towards it stealthily ; then, as the 
battery of Mulberry Island showed no signs of life, those 
coming afterward boldly crossed the field without any 
precaution, until the house was full from cellar to garret. 
That, it appeared, was what the enemy was waiting for. 

All at once, the battery was crowned with smoke ; 
the cannon thundered. A first shot made a hole in the 
roof, another went completely through the house, at the 
third shot the house was vacant. It was amusing to 
see how quickly this was accomplished. The intruders 
rushed out crowding together, some by the door, some 
out of the windows, bounding over the sills, leaping fences 
and ditches, — all hurrying towards the woods, with a 
celerity hastened by the shells, which happily made 
more noise than they did damage. 

It was probably one of these disappointed foragers 
who, to revenge himself for the fright he had had, set 
fire to the building that same evening. At midnight 
there was left but a pile of smoking ruins. 

During that time, along the bank of the river, the 
musket firing was kept up. Six companies were dis- 
posed in the woods, each one furnishing the pickets to 
cover its front. The four others, held in reserve, sent 
out during the night the number of men necessary to 
guard the open field and to make the rounds. 



1 78 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Between us and the enemy the river was only forty to 
fifty yards wide. As I have said, on our side the bank 
was abrupt and wooded, except on the road to a bridge, 
which was destroyed, and of which there remained only 
a few piles. On the enemy's side the land was flat and 
marshy to the foot of a little hill, which rose a short 
distance back, where we could see some earthworks be- 
hind an abatis of large trees. 

During the night the fire ceased on both sides, and 
the skirmishers were relieved under cover of the dark- 
ness. Nothing could be seen, but conversation was 
carried on between the two lines, very rarely with any- 
thing abusive in it. It was for the most part an 
exchange of soldiers' banter. Bull Run and Ball's Bluff 
were the subject on the part of the rebels, to which our 
side replied. Laurel Hill, Donelson, Roanoke, Newburn. 

To these federal victories there were soon added 
others of more importance, for during the month of 
April the Confederates were beaten at Shiloh, in Ten- 
nessee, after a bloody battle of two days, where their 
general, A. S. Johnston, was killed ; and New Orleans 
was surrendered to Admiral Farragut, after a naval 
battle in which he had forced the passage of the lower 
Mississippi, destroyed the enemy's flotilla, and com- 
pelled Forts Jackson and St. Philip to surrender. 

When the news of these successes arrived at the 
camp before Yorktown, chance brought in front of 
the Fifty-fifth New York the Fifth Louisiana, which 
called itself "The Louisiana Tigers," so that French- 
men were firing at each other from across the river, 
and each evening, at the same hour, the retreat that 
the Parisians heard upon the Place Vendome was heard 
on the banks of the Warwick, in the opposing lines. 
Of course the nightly colloquies were in French. The 
capture of New Orleans and of Baton Rouge, the capi- 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 1 79 

tal of the State, put a damper on the spirits of the 
" Louisiana Tigers," and they thereafter replied to 
banter only by gunshots. 

In the night the enemy crossed the swamps, to come 
and crouch near the water in the high grass behind 
some dead trees or some hillocks where they remained 
concealed during the day. With us, the men chose the 
best positions, sheltered by great roots, or behind 
stones, which permitted them to see without being 
seen. 

When the day broke, everything was quiet and mo- 
tionless on both banks, where nothing betrayed the 
presence of man. It was, however, the hour when the 
eyes, sharpened by the hunter's instinct, examined 
the smallest inequalities of the land, and carefully 
searched the grass and bushes for a mark. 

On both sides the game was played with patience 
and a rare cunning, in the first place to find out the 
precise point where the adversary was concealed, and 
afterwards to put a ball through him. The most inge- 
nious stratagems were resorted to in order to draw the 
fire of the opponent upon some false appearance, and, 
at the same time, compel the man firing to show him- 
self. Two rapid discharges were heard ; two puffs of 
white smoke appeared and disappeared in a moment ; 
but nothing was visible, only perhaps a wounded man 
dragged himself into the bushes, calling for aid, or a 
dead body was growing cold in a pool of blood. 

Of all known kinds of hunting, that of man by man is 
certainly the most exciting. It is superior to all others, 
in being a strife between intelligences of the same 
nature, with equal arms and equal dangers. Thus the 
powers both of mind and body are put in play, and are 
developed with an ardor curious to study. 

One morning I went out to one of our advanced 



l8o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

rifle-pits to try and examine the nature of the works on 
which the enemy had been industriously laboring the 
whole preceding night. A few steps from there I saw 
a young soldier lying motionless, flat on the ground, a 
man of a mild and inoffensive nature. His disposition 
was in accordance with his physical appearance, and he 
would have been averse to killing even a sheep. But the 
man chase had transformed him. With his head cov- 
ered with leaves, and at the level of the earth, he 
had crept out there with his eyes intently fixed upon a 
single point of the swamp, watching as a wild beast of 
prey watches for his concealed victim. His loaded gun 
was pushed out in front of him, looking like a stick lying 
on the stones, but really directed under his hand, upon 
the bunch of rushes which absorbed his attention. 

He heard my step, and, without changing his posi- 
tion or turning his head, he simply made a motion with 
his hand, which said distinctly : "Do not come up be- 
hind me ; you will give him the alarm." I left him in 
that position, where he remained, I think, two or three 
hours, never tiring of his watch, never discouraged at 
waiting. At last the bunch of rushes moved ; a shot 
was fired from it ; but the marksman had shown him- 
self. Almost immediately he bounded backwards and 
fell writhing in the high grass, while the other one 
leaped lightly into the rifle-pit, crying out with an air of 
triumph, " I hit him ! " " Bravo ! well done ! " said his 
comrades, somewhat jealous of so good a shot. 

Whatever may be said, war responds to an instinct 
which nature has put into the heart of man. Instead 
of being a violation of an order of things divinely estab- 
lished, it is much rather the normal obedience to one 
of the mysterious laws which govern humanity, and 
preside fatally over the development of its destiny. 
Explain the fact as you will, the human race, ever 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. l8l 

since it has existed, has never ceased to have its inter- 
necine combats, and has never ceased to multiply. The 
shedding of blood must be then a necessary condition 
of equilibrium in its propagation. And my good young 
man, who would not have given a fillip to a child, was, 
in killing his fellow-man con ainorc, only the humble 
but striking manifestation of what are called the 
"working ways of Providence." 

This kind of drill in firing, whose usefulness I have 
heard discussed often, has incontestable advantages. 
Better than any other, it perfects the soldier in the 
use of arms of precision ; it familiarizes him readily 
and without effort to danger, and finally it gives a 
tone to his character by the habitual application of 
his individual faculties to the common work : that is, 
to do the greatest possible amount of damage to the 
enemy, with the least sacrifice to ourselves. On this 
account I encouraged my men, although others did 
differently. 

On the front of the neighboring brigade, they 
watched each other peacefully across the river. They 
lay around in the shade, or in the sunshine ; going 
and coming in perfect security. Those who liked fish- 
ing threw their lines in the stream, and, instead of 
being man-hunters, became fishermen. On that part 
of the lines, the service of advanced posts was an 
eclogue in action. 

On the other hand, along our part of the line, the 
artillery was soon put into play. The enemy brought 
into action some rifled guns, whose conical projectiles 
burst in the pines around my last company. To guard 
against these, a sentinel was posted specially to watch 
that battery. At every shot fired, as soon as he saw 
the smoke, he cried. Look out! and the men hid be- 
hind the trees until the shell burst. In that way the 



1 82 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

enemy burnt a great deal of powder for nothing. 
However, they very nearly gave us a hard blow. 

The general-in-chief having expressed his intention 
of examining for himself the position occupied by the 
Fifty-fifth, his visit was announced to me by a staff 
officer, and the companies were promptly put under 
arms. Soon, indeed, General McClellan came through 
the forest, accompanied by Generals Keyes and Peck, 
and followed by a numerous staff. They stopped first 
near the Zouaves, who were the farthest to the rear, 
and, tempted by the opportunity for observation offered 
by the open fields, they advanced a few steps out of the 
woods. The enemy, who was always on the lookout 
for our movements, saw that it was evidently a group 
of superior officers. He pointed his rifled guns with a 
great deal of care and fired. Two shells came one 
after another, whistling a well known air, and burst 
with a remarkable precision over our visitors, who re- 
entered the woods without going farther along the line, 
putting off the promised visit to another day, which 
never came. 

I regretted this contretemps. I would not have been 
sorry to have had the general-in-chief see with his own 
eyes what we had to endure from the negligence or in- 
capacity of the quartermasters. Not an officer in the 
Fifty-fifth had a tent. For my part, I slept on the 
ground, at the foot of a tree, under the doubtful shel- 
ter of a double rubber blanket stretched upon a stick, 
and fastened down at the four corners by stakes. 
Worse yet, all my baggage had been left at Newport 
News, and, though we were only twelve or fifteen miles 
from there, we waited for it in vain day after day. 
More than two weeks passed before it was sent to us. 

Rations were distributed to the soldiers very irregu- 
larly. The means of transportation, they told us, were 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 1 83 

wanting, and the roads were abominable. However, 
they had no great distance to go. The general depot 
was but a few miles back of our lines, on the navisfa- 
ble head of the Poquosin, where the transports could 
come without difficulty. As to the bad roads, that was 
provided for everywhere by corduroy. 

The corduroy is a sort of rough floor, formed by 
small sticks resting on sleepers, and covered over with 
a light layer of leaves, mixed with earth. In a for- 
est country, this is a quick and easy way to establish 
good means of communication for the artillery and 
wagons. Wherever we stopped during the war, we 
constructed stretches of this kind of road. They last 
a long time, require very little repair, and are of con- 
tinual utility, especially in a rainy season. 

In front of Yorktown, what we were most in want 
of was much less the material than proper administra- 
tion. The quartermasters and commissaries wanted 
experience, instruction, and too often honesty. As to 
staff officers, properly so called, they were not equal 
to the performance of their duties. They were gen- 
erally young men recommended to the generals, to 
whom they were attached more by their family con- 
nections and their position in life than by their ability. 
If they had been drawn from the regular army, the 
service would have been much the gainer, but the offi- 
cers of the regular army who could be spared from 
their regiments were employed in the engineer service, 
or held higher commands among the volunteers. 

On the i6th of April I sent a report to headquarters 
of the division, to recommend the placing of a battery 
on a point which commanded the course of the river, 
and which would be very useful to facilitate the cross- 
ing, or to repel an attack, in case the enemy should 
attempt an offensive movement against the left of our 



184 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

line. General Couch came himself to examine the 
position. The plan was approved by the chief of artil- 
lery, and orders given in consonance. But the works 
proceeded so slowly, for want of proper supervision, 
that they were not yet finished when the Confederates 
evacuated Yorktown. One day the tools were want- 
ing, and the men were sent back to their quarters ; the 
next day it had been forgotten to detail the men, after 
the tools were sent. These shortcomings of the staff 
gave rise to frequent complaints ; but it seemed as 
though no one knew how to remedy the evil. 

The siege, however, took its course, and the cannon- 
ade became more and more continuous along the Third 
Corps front. In our front hostilities were limited to the 
exchange of shots between the picket lines. A few 
pieces of field artillery had been put in position behind 
the parapets ; but with the injunction to use them only 
in case of an attack by the enemy, who profited by it 
to collect the provisions and forage stored in some farm 
buildings which we could have destroyed in a quarter of 
an hour. 

At this time a great deal of consideration was shown 
for the Confederates, which was the more singular in 
that they showed very little for us. The smoke of our 
fires no sooner showed where our tents were pitched 
than immediately a few shells were thrown at the place, 
which compelled the men to withdraw one or two hun- 
dred yards back, in the midst of the woods, to cook their 
meals. But in our front, out of rifle shot, the officers 
of the enemy collected openly, in a small farmhouse, 
which answered them for an observatory. We saw 
them from morning to night, nonchalantly smoking 
their cigars on the piazza and attending to business 
without being disturbed. I could never get the use of 
a couple of cannon to knock down that country seat. 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 1 85 

The latter half of April passed away without other 
incident than that of sending a few wounded men to 
the hospital. I had no other occupation than the daily 
routine of the service, and no other distraction than 
the visits, which were quite numerous on account of the 
position the regiment occupied. I thus had the oppor- 
tunity to accompany General Sumner to our advanced 
posts. His corps brought our force up to more than a 
hundred thousand men. 

A few of our visitors were glad to take the chances 
of a dinner with us, allured by the reputation of French 
cookery, which, in fact, increased our culinary resources, 
and provided for our guests some surprises entirely 
unlooked-for. I do not speak now of the immense bull- 
frogs, whose legs were as large as and more delicate 
than the leg of a chicken. We had something better, 
or at least more rare than that, as doubtless Count de 

V , a French officer attached at the time to the staff 

of General Keyes, will remember. 

One day he was served at our open-air table with 
an exquisite mayonnaise, — so he called it after tasting- 
it. He partook a second time with pleasure. " But 
what is that mayonnaise made of .■* What is the 
secret ?" He could not guess and was very much per- 
plexed about it. 

" Eat what you want first, and afterwards we will 
give you the recipe." 

" And I will take it to France," added the captain, 
" that it may take its place above the Parmentier 
potato, and by the side of the wild turkey of Brillat- 
Savarin." 

The meal finished, the secret was revealed. The 
mayonnaise was of the black snake, whose nutritious 
qualities my Zouaves had discovered. We had eaten 
of it without troubling ourselves, knowing what it was 



1 86 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

made of. But see the power of imagination. The word 
" black snake " was a shot in the stomach of our guest. 
He had found the dish excellent ; the name struck him 
with horror. White as his plate he rose, his smile had 
disappeared. — I regret to add, in conclusion, that he 
never appeared again at our table, and I have every rea- 
son to think that he did not make known in France the 
savory qualities of the black snake — in a mayonnaise. 

During the last days of the month the enemy ap- 
peared to strip his works of men and guns. To feel 
of him, we sent him a dozen shots, to which he did not 
reply. During the night of the 29th, he withdrew his 
advanced posts in front of Smith's division. On the 
30th he unmasked quite an important movement of 
troops on Mulberry Island. 

In the afternoon, a column composed of three regi- 
ments of infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and a battery 
of artillery, commenced to march along the edge of the 
woods which border the James, and finished by crossing 
the flat open land in front of the Harwood farm, five or 
six hundred yards from a small work, where we had two 
pieces of artillery. The route they followed made a 
bend around a house, which was the nearest point to 
us. Twenty horsemen came there first, as if to recon- 
noitre our position, and, seeing we remained motionless, 
they dismounted and were soon joined by a group of 
officers, who installed themselves in the farmhouse, 
while the infantry continued defiling peacefully under 
our noses. 

During this time I sent message after message to 
General Peck asking permission to open fire, of which 
the lieutenant commanding the artillery did not dare to 
take the responsibility, in view of the positive orders he 
had received to reply only to an attack. General Peck 
referred the matter to General Couch. Some aids 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR. 1 87 

came by turns to see what was passing, and returned 
to make their report. Meanwhile, time was going on, 
and the enemy continued his march without being in- 
terrupted. 

He could not have had any choice of roads, whatever 
was the object of his movement, or he would not have 
thus openly exposed his troops ; for our two guns were 
enough to break up his column, without counting the 
artillery, which could have been sent in a few minutes 
to stop his advance entirely, and throw him back into 
the woods and swamps, from which he had emerged. 
But no. The only order I received was to double my 
pickets, at the very time when the enemy was with- 
drawing his. 

The troops which we had so benevolently allowed to 
pass established themselves a little further off, in a 
large wood, where, when night came on, they troubled 
themselves no more about lighting their fires than if 
we had been at Tenallytown. Then only was it decided 
to give them a few shots, and then their fires were ex- 
tinguished. During the night they embarked on some 
boats sent to receive them. In the morning they had 
disappeared. 

Thus the enemy retired from Mulberry Island. This 
was an indication at least : but it did not appear that 
any importance was attached to this fact at headquar- 
ters. The next morning, the ist of May, everything 
remained as before. 

The 2d of May, in the morning, the regiment received 
its pay for the months of January and February, when 
a negro, having swum across the river, came to confirm 
to us the report of the evacuation by the enemy of all 
that portion of his line which was in front of us. I 
sent him immediately to General Peck, but heard 
nothing more from it. 



1 88 P'OUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

1 State this fact, which is not without some impor- 
tance, to prove that upon the left of our lines we had 
been held motionless two days before abandoned posi- 
tions and works evacuated by the enemy. If Couch's 
division and after him Smith's had been thrown across 
the Warwick, whose crossing by us was no longer dis- 
puted, we would most probably have succeeded in cut- 
ting off the retreat of the garrison of Yorktown, and in 
capturing a part of the force which still showed itself 
in front of the Third Corps. 

Success would then have had a very different mean- 
ing, for a city captured is a victory, a city evacuated 
a deception. 

I have never known if the information reached head- 
quarters of the general-in-chief. It might not be im- 
possible that during these two days the fugitive who 
brought it to us did not get any farther than the head- 
quarters of the Fourth Corps. All I have ever learned 
about it is that, before the Congressional committee 
on the conduct of the war. General Keyes alluded to it 
in very vague terms. "The enemy," he said, "had for 
a day or two made preparations to retreat, as I learned 
from a negro, withdrawing" his artillery from Griffen's 
Landing on the James, and, as I think, from other points 
on the Yorktown side." Not a word about the brigade 
which we had seen depart on April 30, nor of sending 
the negro to army headquarters. 

On the 3d of May, in the evening, the enemy opened 
a violent fire on the right of our lines, which he con- 
tinued without intermission the greater part of the 
night. This was to deceive us as to his movements, 
and he succeeded so well that our batteries were for- 
bidden to reply for fear of spoiling a formidable bombard- 
ment, which was about to be opened on the 6th. Labor 
in vain. After so much work and so long preparations, 



APPRENTICESHIP OF THE WAR, 1 89 

the rebels, whom we thought we held tight, slipped 
between our fingers. The morning of the 4th, they left 
Yorktown without hindrance, leaving behind them only 
some empty tents and seventy guns of large calibre, 
which they had not been able to carry away. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FIRST BATTLE — WILLIAMSBURG. 

Pursuit — The enemy attacked at Williamsburg — He attacks Hooker's 
division — Peck's brigade the first to receive it — The Fifty-fifth under 
fire — Critical moment — Attack repulsed — Reenforcements arrive — 
Engagement of General Hancock — General McClellan's report — 
Advice of General Couch — A walk on the field of battle — Burial of 
the dead — Visit to the wounded — The amputated — The prediction 
of a Georgia captain. 

The pursuit began at once. General Stoneman was 
sent with the cavalry to put to flight the enemy, whose 
rearguard he came up with in the afternoon before 
Williamsburg. But there he ran against a series of 
redoubts which barred the road, and he was compelled 
to halt and await the arrival of the infantry. 

The latter had also been put in motion in the morning, 
the Third Corps by the Yorktown road, and the Fourth 
by the Warwick, the two roads coming together before 
reaching Williamsburg. At the point of juncture the 
enemy had thrown up a bastioned work called Fort 
Magruder. 

Couch's division crossed the river at Lee's mill, where 
for the first time we comprehended with what deadly 
hatred towards us the Confederates were filled. 

The road we followed was sown with murderous 
snares. There were cylindrical bombs, with percussion 
fuses carefully concealed, buried so as to leave the cap- 
sule level with the ground. The step of a man or horse 
upon it was sufficient to explode it, and it was always 
fatal. Sometimes the bomb was covered by a piece of 
board, inviting the tired soldier to sit down. Whoever 

190 



THE FIRST BATTLE. I9I 

yielded to the temptation never rose again. A few 
bodies, torn and blackened with powder, showed us the 
result of that invention of the South. But as soon as 
we were on our guard it ceased to be destructive, and 
the greater part of the projectiles, dug up, went to in- 
crease our stock of artillery ammunition. We continued 
the march, almost without intermission, nearly all the 
afternoon, meeting nothing but abandoned camps. 
The few tents we found still standing were slashed 
with the sabre, so that they might be of no use to us. 
Tired, footsore, hungry, we reached our camping ground 
late, where the rain prevented us from having a night 
of rest. 

In the morning, May 5, at seven o'clock, we re- 
newed our march forward. The rain had not stopped 
during the night, and it continued to pour down all day. 
The heavens were hid by one of those thick curtains of 
gray clouds, behind which it seemed as if the sun were 
forever extinguished. The roads were horrible, if we 
could call roads the great mud-holes where the teams 
struggled, and the cannon and caissons, buried up to the 
a.xles, were with difficulty drawn out of one deep rut, 
only to fall immediately into another. 

However, the cannon were heard firing uninter- 
ruptedly at Williamsburg, indicating a serious engage- 
ment. The advance had evidently met with a vigorous 
resistance. They might need reenforcements, we must 
hurry forward. And we pushed on the best we could, 
through an ocean of mud, amongst the mired teams, in 
the midst of an inevitable disorder, which left behind 
many stragglers. As each one took his way by the 
road the least impracticable, it ended by the regiments, 
the brigades, and even the divisions becoming mingled 
in inevitable confusion. Whenever I reached a favor- 
able place, I made a short halt of a few minutes, to 



192 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

rally my scattered companies and give the laggards 
time to rejoin us. Then we again started on, following 
the route of the One Hundred and Second Pennsylvania, 
with which General Peck had taken the advance. 

Behind us marched General Kearney, leading the 
head of his division, which came from Yorktown. His 
ardor had found means of passing all the-troops which 
were ahead of him. He urged on our stragglers, and 
told me that Hooker's division, having marched during 
the night to join Stoneman, must have had the whole 
rearguard of the enemy on his hands. 

Soon an aid of General Peck brought me the order 
to pass by Casey's division, which had halted, I do not 
know why, in a large open field, near a brick church. 
The sound of the cannonade did not diminish. At this 
point, Kearney's division turned to the left to come 
into line by a crossroad less encumbered. 

A little further along, I met Captain Leavit-Hunt, 
aid of General Heintzelman, who had been ordered to 
hurry forward reenforcements. He informed me that 
the conjectures of Kearney, as to Hooker, were correct ; 
that Hooker, strongly opposed by superior forces, had 
lost ground, after a desperate contest of more than four 
hours, during which no assistance had been sent to him. 

The Prince de Joinville, in his turn, passed by me 
without stopping, urging me to hurry forward. He was 
mounted on an English horse and covered with mud 
from head to foot. He was hurrying to Yorktown to 
endeavor to bring up General McClellan, who, ignorant 
of what was passing at Williamsburg, had not yet 
started. 

In the absence of the general-in-chief. General Sum- 
ner and General Keyes lost time in consulting as to 
what was to be done. The former was senior in rank, 
but the latter alone had any troops within reach, and. 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 1 93 

between the two, no measure was taken, and Hooker 
lost not only his position but some of his guns. 

When I led my troops out on the farm where that 
idle conference was going on, the Count de Paris and 
the Duke de Chartres, recognizing the uniform of the 
regiment, came on foot to meet me. I did not have 
time either to stop or to dismount ; they did me the 
honor of accompanying me in this manner for several 
minutes across the furrows, to explain to me the posi- 
tion of affairs, and to wish me success. 

" Everything is going to the devil," said the Duke de 
Chartres to me. " There is nobody here capable of 
commanding, and McClellan is at Yorktown. As 
several aids have not been able to induce him to come, 
my uncle has gone himself to look for him, knowing well 
that without him nothing will be done as it should be." 

General Peck was on the edge of a strip of woods, 
which was all that separated us from the enemy. 
Learning that, on account of our hurried march, and 
the difficulties of the road, I had left behind me half of 
my men, he ordered a halt of ten minutes, to rest those 
who had come up, and to give the others a chance to 
join us. In fact, the greater part of the regiment were 
in the ranks before it went into action. It was then 
about one o'clock in the afternoon. 

The road on which we were left the woods in front of 
Fort Magruder in the midst of an oblong plain, which 
the enemy had fortified with a series of redoubts. As 
this was the narrowest point of the peninsula, the posi-. 
tion would have been a good defensive one, if one were 
master of the two rivers. But the evacuation of York- 
town had opened one of them to our gunboats, and the 
other had been defended only by the Merrimac, whose 
destruction would in a few days be involved in the tak- 
ing of Norfolk. The Williamsburg line, then, was not 



194 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tenable by the Confederates. They thought so little of 
opposing us there that the greater part of their army 
had already passed on, when the attack of Stoneman 
compelled them to return, in order to delay our pursuit, 
and cover their rearguard. The fortified works proved 
to be very fortunately placed for them, so they occupied 
a part of them, and made particularly good use of Fort 
Magruder. 

Peck's brigade, the first to come to the aid of Gen- 
eral Hooker, was promptly deployed along the edge of 
the wood facing the enemy. The Fifty-fifth was on 
the left, resting its right on the road, on the other 
side of which the One Hundred and Second Pennsylva- 
nia formed the centre, and the Ninety-eighth a little 
further on the right. The Ninety-third was in the 
second line, and the Sixty-second New York was held 
in reserve on the other side of the woods. 

In front of us stretched an abatis of trees twenty to 
twenty-five yards deep, then a broad, open field, crossed 
parallel to our front by another road, which ours joined 
in front of Fort Magruder. On the other side of the 
crossroad the fields were bordered, at a distance of 
two or three hundred yards, by a wood, from which 
Hooker's left had been dislodged after a long and 
deadly conflict, and from which the enemy, encouraged 
by a first success, was reforming for a new attack, 
whose shock we were about to receive. 

My orders were to support the right of General 
Hooker ; but it had fallen back into the interior of the 
woods, taking us, I suppose, for a brigade of Kearney's 
division, expected every moment to relieve it. I had 
also to cover a battery of artillery advanced into the 
field, where, in fact, we found it, but abandoned in a 
mud-hole, where the horses had been killed or drowned 
in their harness. 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 1 95 

We had hardly time to notice these details, when, at 
the signal of a group of officers emerging at a gallop 
from Fort Magruder, the enemy's line started out of 
the woods with loud yells, and marched straight for us. 
When they had ad\-anced half-way T opened upon rhem 
a fire by file, which promised well, while the One Hun- 
dred and Second fired a volley with its entire second 
rank. I do not know what harm we did them, but they 
continued to advance rapidly, with increased cries. 

There was in front of my left a natural opening in 
the abatis, toward which two battalions of the enemy 
directed their course, with the evident intention of 
making it their especial point of attack. Unhappily, the 
company which was posted in front of that point was 
the worst commanded, and the one on which I could 
the least depend. I had my eyes on it when it received 
its first volley. Alas ! it did not even wait for a second 
A man in the rear rank turned and started toward me. 
And, like a flock of sheep after the leader, the rest fol- 
lowed in the twinkling of an eye. Almost immediately 
the next companv gave way. then the third. The 
Zouaves, thus finding themselves left alone, broke in 
their turn, and fell back : and, what is most shameful, 
some officers ran awav with their men and even without 
them. The Xinety-third, in forming the second line, 
could not stop the runaways. They broke through the 
ranks and disapp>eared in the woods — the cursed 
woods, which tempted the cowards by an easy refuge, 
and upon which, instead of rain, I wished at that 
moment to see fall fire from heaven. 

However, in the breaking of the left, a handful of 
brave men, non-commissioned officers and soldiers, 
remained immo\-able- Posted behind the trees, they 
held firm, and endeavored to cover the opening by a 
rapid and well directed fire, under the command of 



196 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMV. 

Major Yehl, who gave them the example of a coura- 
geous coolness. Some officers, taken by surprise and 
led away by the current, stopped of their own accord, 
or retired slowly, rather hesitating than frightened, 
and as if seeking to find out what the}' ought to do. In 
spite of the density of the thicket, where my horse 
advanced with difficulty, I was soon amongst them. At 
my voice they stopped and formed around me. I 
gathered in this way a hundred, and led them quickly 
into line. But at the moment when I reformed them 
in front of the fatal opening, a strong volley broke 
them a second time. 

The enemy had then advanced to the end of the abatis, 
and rushed into the passage which he thought open to 
him. In the midst of the smoke I saw six or eight 
gray-jackets advance to within a few steps of us. Are 
we about to be swept away.' No. This time the men 
whom I had led back under fire had not fled. The 
most of them had only taken shelter behind the neigh- 
boring trees, and from there directed a well sustained 
fire upon the assailants, whom the fire of my centre 
companies struck obliquely. Those nearest to us were 
killed or wounded, and the others fell back in front of 
the abatis. 

My right had not yielded. On that side Lieutenant- 
Colonel Thourout, an old lieutenant of the French 
army, passed back and forth encouraging the men. 
Captains Four, Battais, Demazure, Meyer, were brave 
officers, who kept their men in position without effort, 
for, when the officers set the example, the soldiers, sus- 
tained by confidence in their superiors and spurred on 
by pride, fight well. So it can be truly said that sol- 
diers are what their officers make theni. 

Four, who commanded the first company, had learned 
war in the Chasseurs of Vincennes. Standing on the 



tnoik Qt 2. irse. ~e directed the ~e oc his mea :irca 
eaccL ponit winere tiie eietnr penen-ired rde ibaifs. 
Baitais. abandoned, hf 'zls zvc' detirensji-s T-tr i dc^ea. 
men wiio Iiad ioDiowed ties, coiiriiiiied arderri^ is it 
on. drill, widi the tenadtv cat a ^^reton. Tae Irisi, 
compsnv foii|:tLt msder tie coramanri of its senS^r 5<ar- 
gesrt. "wiidocr troabirng itseit aixjot the absence of 13 
ofccers- The Zodaves. naviag rallied now. did tiieir 
d"atv. with ideir first liesteiiaat. St. James* at his rest 
Finallv, the retrains of the three brokea compiries 
grotrped cpc-n the left had amongst them a second 
It named Prosz. This brave Tnar?, baviiig seoi 

; - - _ : rg arocnd hrm Sedng. disdained to leave, and 

rerrained at his post until the last, althoogh he hii bat 
a dozen men left nim to command. 

When I cocld see clearij for myself how markers 
stood, throogh the smoke which noated over ihe whole 
line, in the midst of the rolling oi the small arms and 
the bcrsting of the' shells among the trees. I breathed 
as a man wocid breathe rescued from the water where 
he was drowning. The fi,ag oi the regiment had not 
receded. Our honor was safe : the rest was nothing. 

Perhaps it is too much to say it was nothing. For if 
we had succeeded in holding the enemy on the edge of 
the abatis and p-r : " his passing at t~ -, . -e 

he had twice, ur_. ^- -\ attempted it. r , : i... .. ~- _i 

my left rest in the air. Let the enemy try to pass one 
or two hundred \"ards farther along and there was noth- 
ing to prevent his entering the woods and striking me 
in the fl^^tiV and rear, in which event my only chance was 
in a change of front to the rear. — a man<eu\Tre alwa>-s 
delicate but nearly impracticable in the forest, espe- 
cially with troops who fought in line for the first time. 
So I kept going to the leit to examine, with an intent- 
ness mingled with anjdet].-, that part of the deep and 



198 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

silent wood where nothing could be seen, neither 
friends nor enemies. The question was : " Which 
will show themselves first ? " 

What a tumult ! The whole edge of the woods on 
fire ; the musketry rolling uninterruptedly from one 
end of the line to the other, the balls striking the 
trees like hail and bounding amongst the branches ; 
two batteries of artillery firing as fast as possible ; 
the shells tearing the branches of the trees and fill- 
ing the woods with their explosions ; shrapnel burst- 
ing in the air like petards ; — such were the instruments 
of the diabolical concert. 

If all these had done as much damage as they made 
noise, the affair would have been quickly decided ; hap- 
pily, it was quite otherwise. The reality was much less 
terrible than the appearance. It is true that some men 
fell here and there, not to rise again ; that others, cov- 
ered with blood, limped or were carried back a short 
distance to the foot of a tree, where the two surgeons 
dressed their wounds temporarily. But, after all, the 
number was quite small. The missiles of the enemy, 
directed upon the interior of the woods, which they prob- 
ably supposed to be full of troops, passed over our heads 
without doing us any harm. As to the infantry, troubled 
by the abatis which covered us, they fired too high. 

When the boldest of the enemy sprang forward 
amongst the fallen trees and tried to get through them 
to reach us, impeded in their movements, held in a net- 
work of branches, they furnished a good mark for our 
men and soon disappeared. A large number entered 
there never to go out again. 

On the other side of the road, the abatis, not so thick 
or broad, rendered the attack apparently easier. The 
road itself forked to pass around a clump of trees. The 
principal attack was made there after the first shock 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 1 99 

which broke my left. It there struck the Ninety-third 
Pennsylvania (Colonel MacCarter), posted on both sides 
of the road and the One Hundred and Second Pennsyl- 
vania (Colonel Rawlins), entirely to the right of the 
road. The welcome received was the warmest. A 
terrible fire, at a distance of fifty feet, broke the ene- 
my's ranks and compelled him to fall back in disorder. 

The engagement lasted about an hour, when, for the 
first time, firing was heard on my left. I could perceive 
nothing yet, but the fire became more and more vigorous 
in that part of the woods. No more doubt. Kearney 
had arrived. Hurrah for Kearney ! 

His division, after leaving us near the brick church 
where Casey's division was calmly taking its coffee, had 
followed a road less obstructed but much longer than 
the direct one by which we had come. Berry's brigade 
now came into line. Colonel Poe of the Second Mich- 
igan had come through the woods to see for himself 
who we were and where we were. He had no difficulty 
in recognizing the red kepis, and advanced his regiment 
on our left. One may imagine if Berry's brigade was 
welcome. It could not have been more so even if I 
could have foreseen that it would be the first brigade I 
would be called on to command. 

From that time the enemy could do nothing more 
than keep up his fire, which he did until twilight. 
Between four and five o'clock more reenforcements 
reached us. Devens' brigade took position in our rear, 
followed by Casey's division, which General Keyes had 
finally gone himself to find. When my ammunition was 
exhausted the Sixty-second New York relieved me. At 
ten minutes past five o'clock by the watch, the last gun 
was fired from Fort Magruder. A little later the mus- 
ketry fire ceased with the day, and the rain only con- 
tinued to fall on the living and on the dead. 



200 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

While on the left we thus stopped the offensive 
return of the enemy, the following is what happened 
on the right. On that side the rebels had not occupied 
the redoubts thrown up east of Fort Magruder length- 
wise of the narrow plain, protected at that point by a 
marshy creek running through thick woods. At its 
extremity, the plain terminated in a steep bank, at the 
foot of which a long road transformed the creek into a 
pond. There was a formidable redoubt at that point. 
As it swept the road for its whole length, a regiment 
with a few guns would have sufficed to stop an army 
corps. But the enemy had put there neither a gun 
nor a man. 

Hooker had sent a reconnoissance in that direction 
in the morning. The colonel commanding, meeting no 
enemy anywhere, informed General Hancock, who com- 
manded a brigade in Smith's division, of that fact. On 
Jihat information Sumner decided in the afternoon to 
send forward some force in that direction, and Hancock, 
passing rapidly over the road, ascended the hill at the 
foot of the vacant battery and advanced into the plain 
unexpectedly. Two redoubts, both unoccupied, were 
near by. He put a force in them, and, as he had taken 
a battery with him, he put two guns in the nearest and 
took two with him to the edge of the woods, with 
which he drove out, without trouble, the feeble garri- 
son from a third work. 

This attack gave the alarm to the Confederates, who, 
not expecting us from that direction, had given General 
Hancock plenty of time to make his dispositions. 

When they recognized the danger. Early was 
promptly detached to retake the redoubts and throw 
us back into the swamp. But Hancock was ready to 
receive him. He allowed them first to advance in line 
of battle, behind a swell of the ground. When they 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 20I 

were well uncovered, he welcomed them with a deadly 
fire at short range ; then, at the moment when he saw 
their line shaken, he charged them vigorously, and re- 
mained master of the field of battle, which in their 
flight they abandoned to him, covered with dead and 
wounded. The night coming on prevented Hancock 
from pursuing further the advantage of this short but 
brilliant engagement. 

What was General McClellan doing in the mean- 
while ? He had finally decided to leave Yorktown, at 
the urgent solicitation of Governor Sprague and the 
Prince de Joinville, and had reached Williamsburg — 
when everything was over. One need not be very 
much surprised, then, that, knowing nothing himself of 
what had happened, but in a hurry to give an account 
of the battle, he had sent a despatch at ten o'clock in the 
evening, the errors of which bordered on the ridiculous. 

At the very instant when the enemy, abandoning his 
position, hastily resumed his retreat toward Richmond, 
he wrote : " I have Joe Johnston in front of me with a 
large force, probably niuch greater than mine, and very 
strongly intrencJied. I will, at least, try to hold them 
in check here. The total of my force is, without any 
doubt, inferior to that of the rebels, who still fight well ; 
but I will do all I can with the troops I have at my 
disposal." 

Now, what was the number of the troops which Gen- 
eral McClellan had under his orders .'' One hundred 
and twelve thousand three hundred and ninety-two 
(113,392) mtn present for duty, — so it appears in the 
official report, signed by his own hand, sixteen days be- 
fore. At Williamsburg, the Third and Fourth Corps 
together amounted to sixty-eight thousand two hun- 
dred and nineteen (68,219) men. The Confederates had 
not one-half that number in front of us. 



202 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The next morning, the enemy having disappeared, 
the general celebrated our success in a very different 
tone. Now, " the victory is complete." Only, it is 
Hancock who has gained it. " He took two redoubts." 
In his delight, the general-in-chief forgets that they 
were not defended. "He repulsed Early's brigade in 
a real bayonet charge. He took a colonel and one hun- 
dred and fifty prisoners, killing at least two colonels, 
as many lieutenant-colonels, and many soldiers. The 
brilliant fight of Hancock resulted in turning the left 
of the enemy's works, who abandoned his position dur- 
ing the night, leaving all his sick and wounded in our 
hands. Hancock's success was gained with a loss not 
exceeding twenty, killed and wounded." 

This was an error. Hancock had lost more. But 
would it not appear from this report that Hancock was 
the only one who had been engaged .'' As to Hooker, 
he hardly mentioned him. " I do not know exactly 
what our loss is ; but I fear Hooker lost considerable 
on our left." This is all. Not a word about Kearney, 
nor of Peck. And yet Hooker's division had fought 
for six hours with a desperation, shown by a loss 
of about seventeen hundred men. Peck's brigade, 
the first to arrest the enemy's success, had lost 124 
men, and Kearney's division about three hundred. 
Was the general-in-chief ignorant of this .-' Or were 
those accessories invisible to him, on account of 
the brilliant achievement of the capture of two un- 
occupied redoubts, and of a real charge — with the 
bayonet .-* 

The regiment passed the night in a field of mud — a 
miserable night. Since the second day before, we had 
made a hard march, fought fairly, eaten little, and slept 
not at all. Fires were kindled, which were kept up 
with difficulty on account of the rain, and around which 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 203 

we endeavored to pass the time by detailed accounts of 
all the incidents of the day. 

At two o'clock in the morning, General Couch had the 
kindness to come in person and compliment me on the 
part we had taken in the battle. I was not disposed 
to accept more than what rightfully belonged to us. 

" General," I said, " I thank you for the praises you 
have been so kind to express to me for the brave men, 
officers and soldiers, who surround me. They deserve 
them. But here is but two-thirds of my regiment. 
The remainder ran away at the first fire, and I do not 
know what has become of them. Among these last 
are eight or ten officers who have acted like cowards ; 
I wish to get rid of them as soon as possible, and I 
propose to ask to-day for a court-martial, that justice 
may be done." 

The general drew me aside to reply to me. Smiling, 
he said : " My dear colonel, you take the matter too 
much to heart. It is not at all surprising ; and what 
has happened to you has happened to others I could 
cite to you, but who will say nothing about it. Do as 
they do ; believe me, it is best. A court-martial is not 
possible at this moment, and, if it were, I would per- 
suade you not to ask for one. The first fire has an 
unlooked-for effect on the nerves of many men, against 
which their inexperience is futile to fortify them. Sur- 
prised at the first encounter, they will be prepared at 
the second and will come out of the action as 
brave as any others. It is right to give those who 
have failed to-day an opportunity to repair their fault 
on the next occasion. If the thing occurs a second 
time, I will be the first to ask you to take severe 
measures. Until then, let us keep our family secrets 
and do our best." 

General Couch was right. He judged wisely, as the 



204 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

conduct of the whole regiment soon proved, at the 
battle of Fair Oaks. 

The enemy retreated quietly, without being pursued. 
The roads were in such a horrible condition that he 
had to abandon five pieces of artillery and several 
wagons in the mud-holes. What would have been the 
result, then, if we had followed him up closely ? But 
General McClellan showed himself in no more hurry to 
take Richmond than he had been to take Yorktown ; 
and as he had allowed IMagruder's division to fortify 
and receive reenforcements on the Warwick where he 
could have easily captured it, so now he allowed John- 
ston's army to go and prepare for the defence of the 
Confederate capital without even attacking his rear- 
guard. Thus we had three entire days of leisure at 
Williamsburg to lie around in the sun and brush up our 
arms to the sound of military music, which celebrated 
our indolent glory by playing from morning till night 
" Yankee Doodle," " Hail, Columbia," and other patriotic 
airs. 

I profited by the delay to visit the field of battle, 
where several detachments passed the day of the 6th 
in burying the dead. Not an exhilarating spectacle. 
And yet, to be sincere, I could not help feeling a little 
disappointed in finding only fifteen dead in the abatis 
behind which we had fought. Three hours of firing 
and sixteen thousand cartridges expended to kill fifteen 
men and put perhaps a hundred and fifty Jiors dc com- 
bat ! But the rebels had found even that loss too 
much, and so that must console us for not having done 
more. 

Where Hooker's division had fought our loss was 
much greater than theirs. On the open ground, and 
especially on the sides of the road, lay many of the 
dead from Sickles' New York brigade. Further along 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 205 

in the wood, where the attack had begun, the New 
Jersey brigade had left the thicket full of dead. 

Everywhere those who had been killed outright had 
retained, when fallen, the position in which death had 
struck them standing. 

During the battle. Captain Titus, brigade quarter- 
master, having gone forward to the right of the Fifty- 
fifth, saw a Confederate soldier crawling into the 
abatis. He picked up a musket, fallen from the hands 
of a man killed or wounded, and shot him just as he 
was taking aim at one of our men. The next morning 
we found him stretched out on his back with both arms 
in the position of taking aim. The captain's ball had 
passed through his heart. 

The cannon which the enemy had not been able to 
carry off were buried in the mud to the axles. The 
two wheel horses were literally drowned in the liquid 
mud, their heads half buried. The others, killed by 
balls, mingled their blood with that of some artillery- 
men who had endeavored to release them by cutting 
the harness. 

Human remains frightfully mutilated gave evidence 
here and there that the cannon had also done its part 
in the bloody work. One of these lay at the foot of a 
fence with nothing of the head left, but the face like a 
grinning mask. The remainder, crushed by a ball, 
adhered to the rails in bloody blotches. Strange curi- 
osity, which by a natural impulse leads us toward the 
horrible — which led me there upon the field of battle, 
and which attracts you, also, you who read these lines, 
since your imagination completes the picture of which 
this is a sketch. 

You will not hesitate, no more than I did, to step on 
the edge of these broad trenches, carelessly dug to-day 
by those for whom others will dig trenches elsewhere, 



206 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

perhaps in a year, perhaps in a month, perhaps to-mor- 
row. The first to depart on the long journey lie 
stretched out before us, side by side, with marble 
features, glassy eyes, and in their torn and bloody 
uniforms. The comrades who will follow them hasten 
to finish their duty without philosophizing on the skull 
of poor Yorick, whose infinite witticisms but yesterday 
enlivened the bivouac. A layer of men and a layer of 
earth. The ditch filled, it is covered over with a little 
hillock, to provide for settling. Then they depart, 
leaving to a few friendly hands the pious care of mark- 
ing a name and a date on small boards aligned at the 
head of the dead, where no one will come to read 

them. 

I found my wounded in a neighboring farmhouse 
transformed into a hospital, where those of the brigade 
had been carried. The farm buildings were full. The 
patients were laid on the ground, on beds of straw. 
Those who could walk went and came with the head 
bandaged or the arm in a sling, helping to take care of 
the others. All showed a remarkable courage and bore 
their sufferings with a tranquil resignation. The most 
boastful were even laughing, and spoke of soon retak- 
ing their places in the ranks. A few only, feeling that 
they were mortally wounded, groaned aloud with grief, 
or shed silent tears while thinking of those they would 
never see again. 

Amongst the latter was a young married German, and 
having, f think, a child. The ball which had wounded 
him had passed through the head of the man in front, 
and, striking him over the left eye, had traced a furrow 
around his head, coming out behind the ear. The sur- 
geons declared the wound less dangerous in reality 
than in appearance. But the poor boy was struck in his 
imagination. He thought he had the ball in his head. 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 



207 



" I feel it," he said to me, " it is heavy and hurts me ; 
I am a dead man." 

Nothing could convince him to the contrary. He 
died at the end of a fortnight, not by a ball, but by 
an idea in his head. 

Such was not the case with the big strapping Irish- 
man whom I found smoking his pipe at the door of the 
hall. 

" Well," said I to him, " how do you find yourself ? " 

"Perfectly, colonel. Never better in my life." 

" Why, then, have you got your face half covered 
with bandages ? " 

" Oh ! a mere nothing ; a scratch. I will show it to 
you." 

" No, I thank you." 

" Yes, yes ; you will see what it is." 

And, raising up compresses and bandages, in spite of 
my protestations, he showed me a gaping wound in the 
place of the eyebrows carried away. 

" I see," said I, " your wound has not been dressed 
this morning." 

" No ; the doctor put on this yesterday for the first 
time. But to-day he is so busy with the others, who 
need his help more than I, that I did not wish to 
bother him." 

" And your eye," I replied. 

" Gone. But you see, colonel, it is only the left eye, 
and that will save me the trouble of closing it while 
taking aim, which always did bother me. In a fort- 
night I will be back with the regiment, and may I be 

d^ -d if I do not bring down plenty of Johnny Rebs 

yet." 

I had to use my authority to have him consent to the 
dressing of the wound. I left him in the hands of the 
surgeon, who let me know by signs that the wound was 



208 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

a bad one. In fact, the poor fellow never returned to 
the regiment. 

As I walked toward the door, a soldier, who did not 
belong to my regiment, raised himself painfully on his 
seat and called me with some hesitation. 

" What is it ?" said I. 

" Colonel, I would like to shake hands with you." 

" All right, my boy ; where are you wounded .'' " 

" No matter about my wound. I wished only to shake 
your hand, because you are a man. After the fight you 
do not forget those who have had their bones broken 
under your orders. I wish I belonged to the Fifty-fifth." 

The least attention of this kind goes to the heart of 
a wounded soldier. A visit and a few words of encour- 
agement from a superior officer, which he would think 
nothing of in his tent, are sufficient, at the hospital, to 
fill him with gratitude ; simply because it proves to him 
that he is not forgotten. In our hours of suffering 
the bitterest pang is caused by thinking ourselves 
forgotten. 

Behind the camp assigned to the regiment near Fort 
Magruder was a house in which the Confederates had 
left a number of their men too badly wounded to be 
taken with them. 

When I went to the house a little stream of coagu- 
lated blood reddened the steps coming from the half- 
opened door. On pushing it, to enter, I felt a resistance, 
the cause of which I soon recognized. It was a pile 
of amputated legs and arms, thrown into a corner of 
the room, waiting the coming of a negro to take them 
out and bury them in the garden, in a hole which he 
had dug for the purpose. 

Limbs, vigorous or slight, all shattered beneath the 
remnant of bloody flesh. I remember that near the 
pile there lay by itself a leg white and slender, termina- 



THE FIRST BATTLE. 2O9 

ting in a foot almost as small as that of a child. The 
knee had been shattered by a ball. 

" You see we have had some work to do," said a sur- 
geon to me. " Come in, colonel." 

Around the room, in which I entered, the amputated 
were on the floor, in rows, with the head to the wall. 
All these mutilated creatures turned their eyes, hollow 
with suffering, towards me, the greater part of them 
listless but a few with an air having a shade of defiance. 
I lookec! for the one to whom the leg with a child's foot 
had belonged. I had no trouble in recognizing him. 
He was, really, almost a child, with blue eyes, long 
blond hair, and with emaciated features. 

" How old are you .-' " I asked him. 

" Seventeen years." 

" So young and already a soldier ? " 

" I enlisted of my own accord." 

" What to do ? " 

" To defend my State against her enemies." 

" Say to break up the Union to the profit of your 
slaveholders." 

" I do not think so." 

" Have you any relations .'' a father or a mother } " 

*' Yes," said he, with a voice evidently moved. 

" Why did you not remain by her side .'' see what 
your condition is now." 

" I did my duty. That satisfies me." 

I went into the next room. The same sight. 

" Water," cried several feeble voices. 

"Wait a minute, boys," said the doctor, in a fatherly 
tone. " The deuce ! Haven't you any patience. Sam 
is busy just at this instant. As soon as he is disen- 
gaged he will bring you some." 

Sam was the negro ordered to bury the amputated 
limbs. 



2 10 FOUR VKAKS \VI I'll lllE 1\^T0MAC AR:\IV. 

" Think ot it, colonel," began the doctor ai;ain, " we 
found here only an old black man to help us take care 
of these poor creatures, a good enough old fellow, but 
not as active as he might be, and who is hardly enough 
to attend to everything." 

On the stairs I met my second surgeon, eating, with a 
good appetite, a piece of biscuit and some cheese. 

"The surgeon-in-chief detailed me here yesterdav," 
said he, "and I assure you. colonel, it is no sinecure. 
This is the first morsel I have eaten since I left the 
brigade hospital." 

And, continuing his hasty repast, he introduced me 
to a room where a dozen patients waited their turn. 
One of them, whose leg had been amputated only the 
previous evening, had been left there on a straw mat- 
tress, a privilege accorded to him on account of his rank 
as captain. He was a robust Georgian, with black 
hair and beard, sunburned skin, a real '' dur-a-ciiire" 
whose morale had not been affected by the loss of a leg. 
We entered readily into conversation, and what he 
said to me has remained graven on my mind. It was a 
prediction, which after events have not allowed me to 
forget. 

" Do not be in a hurry," he said, "to cry victory! 
and to regard that as a great success which is really 
onlv the execution of our own plans. What we wanted 
at Yorktown was simply to delay your arrival before 
Richmond until the summer heat. We have succeeded. 
We kept you there, throwing up earth, digging ditches, 
erecting batteries for a whole month, although we had 
but one against ten when you came. McClellan having 
thro\vn up his mountain to crush our shed, w^e gave 
him the slip without his even knowing it. You did not 
take Yorktown ; we made you a present of it, when it 
was no longer of use to us. You caught up with us 



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2 12 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

An arm, taken off at the shoulder joint, rolled under 
the table more bloody than any of the rest. The table 
of torture. A young man lay there unconscious, from 
whom that arm had been taken. 

Under the influence of chloroform, he appeared not 
to suffer ; but from time to time a sad smile passed 
over his countenance. 

I did not wait his revival. I had had enough of it. 
The surgeon told me that it was doubtful if the patient 
survived the operation. He died the following night. 
When I went out of the house, Sam came in, having 
finished his work of gravedigger. He bowed very low 
several times. " Sam," said I, " if you are a good man, 
go immediately to the well and get some water for the 
wounded, who are very thirsty." 

That was all I could do for them. 



CHAPTER XI. 

DAYS OF SUFFERING. 

Forward march — Engagement at West Point — Subject for discontent — 
Dinner at headquarters — Fight of a new kind — The bull and the 
Newfoundland dog — The death of Bianco — Virginia plantations — 
Marsh fever — The Turner house — Delirium — Manna in the desert 
— Anxieties — Battle of Fair Oaks — First days of convalescence — 
Departure for the North. 

On Friday, May 9, the Fourth Corps at last moved, 
followed by the Third. The Second, having remained 
at Yorktown, embarked there for West Point, at the 
place where the Pamunkey and the Mattapony unite 
to form the York River. One would naturally suppose 
that the last three days had been actively employed in 
arranging" an advantageous concentration of the army, 
in getting together and completing the material for 
transportation, in assuring the regular service of the 
supply department, — in fine, in taking every possible 
measure to repair the lost time by a rapid advance. 
The days were long, the sun hot, the roads dried while 
you were looking at them. But nothing could hasten 
the methodical slowness of the general-in-chief, and our 
daily marches were those of the tortoise. We did not 
reach New Kent Court House until Tuesday the 13th, 
the fifth day after starting, and we did not leave there 
till the i6th, two days later. The distance is twenty- 
eight miles, two ordinary marches. 

The enemy was not the cause of these delays. He 
thought only of continuing his retreat ; we did not 
come across him, keeping ourselves at a respectful dis- 
tance from his rearguard. 

213 



2 14 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

General Franklin alone, ha\4ng arrived at West Point 
on the 7th by transport, and thus threatening with his 
division the flank of the Confederates, who were march- 
ing by at a distance of two or three miles, had an en- 
gagement with them, the importance of which was 
much exaggerated by the imagination of General Mc- 
Clellan. The most advanced regiments were thrown 
back and kept near the river, and Johnston continued 
his march without being further troubled. 

When it was known in the army of what little im- 
portance was the pretended battle of West Point, it 
began to be perceived what partialities the general-in- 
chief would show towards his particular friends. He 
had already cut out new commands for them by reduc- 
ing the army corps to two divisions each. Great dis- 
content was manifested. Not that the army took to 
heart the transfer of such or such a division from one 
command to another. That was an affair for the gen- 
erals. But Hooker's division was deeply wounded 
by the injustice of which it had been a victim in 
the telegraphic bulletins upon the Williamsburg fight. 
The same sentiment prevailed in Kearney's division 
and in Peck's brigade. Personally, Hooker was in- 
censed ; Kearney protested vigorously ; Peck com- 
plained against the injustice. As to the subaltern 
oflBcers and soldiers, their discontent found vent in 
murmurs and epigrams. 

Another grievance, more generally felt because it 
directly touched the soldier, was the excess of precau- 
tion and the severity of orders to preserve from injury 
any object, even the smallest, belonging to the rebels. 
Not a farmhouse, not a cottage, not a negro, but was 
furnished with a guard on our approach, by the troops 
of General x\ndrew Porter, especially ordered, not to 
protect the persons and the furniture, which ran no 



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2l6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

forces. They designated also the farms where, under 
our safeguard, provisions were reserved for the Con- 
federates, as soon as they could send for them. It is 
true that the Richmond papers, which were filled every 
day with invectives against us, showed themselves more 
courteous towards our general, whom they called " the 
only gentleman in his army." It can be seen that they 
had very good reason to feel so. 

So the soldier lived poorly, having no way to add to 
the insufBcient rations, which were furnished quite 
irregularly. On two occasions the coffee failed us, 
which, of all privations, is the one the soldier feels the 
most. The means of transportation are still incom- 
plete, it was said. And the quartermasters incompe- 
tent, might have been added without injustice. 

On the general's staff they possibly were ignorant of' 
these things, for evidently they did not suffer from the 
want of anything. Near New Kent Court House, my 
bivouac being near the army headquarters, I profited 
by it to make a call on two of my friends, who kept me 
to dinner. It was an excellent dinner ; certainly they 
were not in want of the means of transportation. The 
fare was of the best, and we had a certain mixture of 
Bordeaux and iced champagne, which still lingers in my 
grateful memory. 

I finished my evening in the tent of the Orleans 
princes, who, influenced by their surroundings, ap- 
peared to me to see things somewhat differently from 
what they really were. At headquarters they had but 
one bell, and consequently only one sound was heard — 
praises of McClellan. 

It was near New Kent Court House that the brigade 
had a fight of a new kind, from which it did not come 
out without disorder. The people of a neighboring 
farm, who had taken care to house their cattle at our 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 217 

approach, had thought fit to leave an ill-tempered bull 
in the field where we must camp. The animal appeared 
at first to be indifferent to our movements, but when 
the arms were stacked and the men scattered on all 
sides in search of wood and water, this unusual stir 
began to excite him. He commenced to paw the 
ground and to bellow, showing his anger. 

At this provocation, the dogs of the regiment 
pricked up their ears and replied by barkings, which in 
their language must have had a definite signification, 
for immediately every one of them started like an arrow 
in the direction of the bull. The bull waited for them 
at first without moving, and, when he had five or six in 
front of him, charged resolutely at them, irritated more 
and more by their barking and his powerlessness to 
reach his adversaries. 

Attracted by the noise, the men ran from all sides to 
enjoy the spectacle. As soon as the animal saw that 
he had enemies more worthy of his notice, he fell upon 
the nearest. They, having no other arms than their 
canteens or tin cups, ran away as fast as possible, in 
every direction. The rest, seeing that the sport was 
becoming serious, made for the fence with great strides, 
in the midst of cries, oaths, and laughter, the noise of 
which came nearer and nearer. 

Blinded by rage, worried by the dogs, the bull in a 
few bounds was at the front of the regiment. The 
lieutenant-colonel was there at that moment, giving 
orders, when twenty voices at once cried out to him to 
" look out." He turned his head ; the animal was almost 
upon him, foaming at the mouth, fire in his eyes, with 
horns lowered. With one bound, he jumped to one side, 
his foot slipped and he fell in a furrow. Happily for 
him, the brute was under so much headway that he 
could neither stop nor even turn before striking our 



2lS FOUR YEARS WITH THE IWrOMAC ARMY. 

Stacks of arms with his lowered head. He knocked 
over two or three of these, threw himself on the line of 
the Sixty-second, overturning everything in his passage, 
and returned towards us with great bounds, in the midst 
of a general rout. 

On our right was the Seventh Massachusetts, belong- 
ing to another brigade. One of their wagons had 
stopped near the road, and behind this wagon was 
chained a fine Newfoundland dog, the favorite of the 
regiment. The courageous animal made desperate efforts 
to break his chain, and by his barkings asked to take 
part in the combat. On the other side, his master did 
not seem disposed to give him his liberty, fearing he 
might be disembowelled by the bull. However, from 
every side the cry was raised, " Unchain the dog ! Un- 
chain the dog ! " The dog was loosed. He bounded 
across the road and rushed upon the enemy, whom no 
one knew how to fight. A few men, indeed, had seized 
their guns, but they could not use them for fear of kill- 
ing or wounding some one. As to playing the role of 
picador with the bayonet, it was so dangerous that no 
one was willing to try it. When the Newfoundland 
entered the lists everything was changed. 

As, when two of Homer's heroes meet in the field of 
battle they stop to look each other over and challenge 
each other to single combat, around them the common 
arms are lowered and the common soldiers stop their 
fighting to watch from the pit the spectacle which the 
gods themselves witness from the first boxes, — so the 
bull and the Newfoundland stopped for a moment in 
front of each other, while a large circle of federal war- 
riors was formed around them. The common animals 
even ceased their noises. 

The tactics of our champion were evidently to take a 
position on one or the other flank of the enemy, but he 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 



219 



changed front rapidly to correspond with the move- 
ments of his adversary. This manoeuvre was kept up 
for a few moments, when the dog made a feint, turned 
sharply back, and, springing at the head of the bull, 
remained fastened to his ear. Remember that it was 
not a question of a bulldog, of little weight, but of a 
Newfoundland, who did not weigh less than sixty or 
eighty pounds. 

The bull, having attempted in vain to free himself by 
throwing the dog in the air, then endeavored to crush 
him under his fore feet. A dangerous attempt, but 
against which the dog guarded himself with remark- 
able address, using his hind feet. Then, mad with 
pain and rage, the bull began to run at a venture, bel- 
lowing fearfully and carrying the huge dog fastened like 
a vise to his ear. 

At this instant the commissary sergeant of the regi- 
ment, who was a butcher by profession, came up. He. 
armed himself with a hatchet, and one vigorous blow 
upon the backbone of the bull put an end to the com- 
bat. The conqueror then let go his hold, to receive 
with an intelligent dignity the caresses and congratula- 
tions which were given him, while the conquered one, 
quickly cut up, furnished an addition to the regular 
rations, of which no account was rendered. 

Thus, in this inhospitable country, even the animals 
took part in the contest against us. 

I had brought a bulldog along from Washington, 
whose former masters had filed down his dog-teeth to 
make a more peaceable animal out of him than bulldogs 
usually are. Bianco (for that was his name) lived on 
good terms with every one, man and beast, in the loyal 
States. But from the moment of disembarking on the 
Peninsula it was only a continued combat with the 
Confederate dogs. A large mastiff, driven away from 



2 20 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the Harwood farm by the fire, had followed the regi- 
ment. He was valued for his ability to catch the wild 
hogs wandering through the woods. Between the bull- 
dog and him there was the hatred of the Guelph for 
the Ghibeline. One day, taking advantage of a moment 
when the regiment, being in motion, could not interfere, 
they went off the road to settle their differences. The 
new dog remained there. Bianco had strength enough 
left to rejoin me on the plantation of ex-President Tyler, 
where we went into camp. His victory having been 
duly reported, he lay down in a ditch to die on his 
laurels. The soldiers, whom he had accompanied 
under fire at Williamsburg, decided that he had died 
gloriously, and my groom swore over his remains a war 
of extermination against all the Confederate dogs. 

The residence of Mr. Tyler resembled a great many 
others in Virginia, of which one can say, as of the float- 
ing staff of the fable, — " From a distance, it is impos- 
ing ; near by, it is nothing." 

These residences are generally built on a pleasant 
site, in the midst of rich fields. Shaded by great trees, 
surrounded by farm buildings and negro huts, they 
have an air of importance when seen from a distance. 
Regard them close at hand and with a view of the 
whole building, and the house loses in its proportions. 
Enter the house, and you are surprised to find nothing 
there which bears the marks of elegant comfort. 
The walls are whitewashed ; the floors covered with 
common matting, often badly worn ; you will find calico 
curtains, beds and cupboards painted with a poor imi- 
tation of mahogany, chairs with seats of straw or 
braided rushes. A map, yellow with age, will hang on 
the wall in the vestibule ; a few colored prints of 
women with mouths in the shape of hearts, and a rose 
in the hand, will pass for parlor ornaments, while one or 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 22 1 

two plaster parrots and a Yankee clock, worth a dollar, 
will probably furnish the mantel ornaments. 

You think you are in the house of some poor farmer 
who is living by the sweat of his brow. Not at all. 
Count the horses in the stable, the slaves in the cabins, 
the cattle in the fields. You are in the house of some 
great planter, a breeder of negroes, an influential poli- 
tician, who, away from home, will spend money by the 
handfuls, in the hotels of Washington or New York, or 
at the Northern seaside watering-places, where, per- 
haps, he passes all his summers. There his ostentation 
takes no account of the expense. But at home, where he 
lives only eji famillc, economy governs his habits. He 
leads two entirely different lives. In one the luxuries 
are considered as necessary, in the other common 
necessaries figure as luxuries. 

It was on the grounds of Mr. Tyler that I felt the 
first symptoms of a sickness that showed its full 
strength a few days later. The regiment passed the 
night near a thicket which was interspersed with 
stagnant pools. I slept quite poorly, on some wooden 
rails, to protect me from the dampness of the ground, 
near a campfire of my first company. The next 
morning I awoke with my head heavy and my body 
shaken by aguish feelings, which did not leave me 
during the day's march. The second day after. May i8, 
was a day of rest. I took advantage of it to consult the 
surgeon. His remedies did not stop the illness, which 
continued to grow worse. 

On the 20th, the division arrived at a brick building- 
called Providence Church, not far from the swamps in 
the midst of which flowed the Chickahominy. The 
weather was rainy, the ground soaked. I had taken 
hardly any nourishment for three days ; on dismounting 
from my horse I felt that I was failing, and that if I 



22 2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

passed the night in that mud I should be unable to 
rise in the morning. 

There was, close by, a dilapidated barn, where a few 
men, weakened by fever or worn out by the march, had 
obtained shelter. I thought myself happy to be able to 
lie down on a pile of corn stalks, sometimes shivering 
and sometimes stifled under my blankets. I thought 
of the sinister predictions of the Georgia captain. 

I had turned over the command of the regiment for 
the night to the lieutenant-colonel. In the morning, 
when I learned that the brigade was ordered on a recon- 
noissance toward Bottom's Bridge, in the direction of 
Richmond, I made a last effort and left on horseback at 
the head of my regiment. A few hours later I returned 
under the charge of the regimental surgeon, stricken 
down by the terrible malady which was soon to make 
such ravages in our ranks. 

Much was said at that time of the "fine organiza- 
tion" of the Army of the Potomac. Things should be 
seen from a near point of view to know the truth. We 
have already seen how the commissary and quarter- 
master service was performed. I had to make trial, in 
my own person, of the ambulance service. In the 
whole division there could not be found one available 
to transport a colonel to a hospital. 

I was no longer able to keep in the saddle. Shelter 
must be sought somewhere for me. That shelter was 
a miserable little house inhabited by some poor people 
named Turner. The husband and his wife composed 
the whole family. The ground floor was divided into 
two small rooms, the kitchen, in which they slept, and a 
vestibule, to which an old leather sofa furnished a pre- 
tense to call it a parlor. From the vestibule, a stair- 
way like a ladder led directly to a garret, with sloping 
ceiling, where there was a bed. I should have said a 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 223 

cot. But, under the circumstances, it seemed like a 
gift from heaven. It actually had sheets. 

My orderly was left with me as nurse. He was a 
Zouave named Shedel, a careful and steady man, who 
was of great service to me. He found in the hut room 
enough to stretch his blankets near my bed. My two 
servants put rip their shelter tent near the door ; my 
horses were hitched to a fence, and my installation was 
complete. A sorry installation. I was abandoned 
there like an estray from the vast current of men advan- 
cing toward Richmond. 

My first night was miserable. An intense fever con- 
sumed me, and an intolerable headache deprived me of 
all sleep. These continual pains nearly drove me mad. 
I had great trouble to keep from delirium. It was only 
by a constant effort of will, and by determinedly keep- 
ing my eyes open, that I was able to prevail against the 
hallucinations of the fever. From the instant that they 
closed, weighed down by fatigue, the phantoms took 
hold on my brain and added imaginary tortures to my 
real sufferings. My head rolled before me as if carried 
away by a cannon shot. I ran after it to pick it up, and 
my intestines stretched out on the ground behind me. 
This sensation was continually renewed, filling the long 
hours of the night with anguish. 

During the course of the ne.xt day my first surgeon 
succeeded in making me a visit. Foreseeing that it 
would be the last, he had carefully made his prescrip- 
tions, and, handing to Shedel a few medicines prepared 
beforehand, accompanied by detailed instructions, he 
remounted his horse and left me to the care of God. 

The following days have left but a confused trace in 
my memory. I vaguely remember persons coming in 
and going out of the house, officers speaking in a low 
tone of voice near my bed, and red lights illuminat- 



2 24 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ing my window, in the midst of a great murmur outside. 
I knew afterwards that the rear divisions of the army 
had camped over night around the house and had de- 
parted at daybreak. 

The critical period lasted three days. The disease 
began to abate on the fourth, and on the fifth the fever 
left me in a state of prostration which it is difficult to 
imagine. Life returned to me without pain. Except 
that, neither power nor will. The moral spring ap- 
peared to be broken as well as physical power. If I 
had known that the guerillas were coming to cut my 
throat and that I must get out of bed to escape them, 
I would have said, " Let them come," and would not 
have stirred. In the utter exhaustion of nature, every- 
thing had become totally indifferent to me. Life and 
death might have been weighing in the balance and I 
would not have put a grain of sand in either scale. 

The first incident which served to shake off my tor- 
por was the visit of two surgeons, who, passing near 
and hearing of a colonel dangerously ill at the Turners', 
had the house pointed out to them, and came to see me, 
in the hope that they might be of some service to me. 
They both declared me to be out of immediate danger, 
telling me that I had had a narrow escape, of which I 
did not have the slightest doubt. They advised quiet, 
patience, and no excitement, which was not difficult for 
me, and put me especially on guard against the least 
imprudence which might bring on a relapse, for, said 
one of them to me with emphasis, — "A relapse, in your 
condition, means death in eight hours.'' I did not like 
the idea of being condemned to death, even conditionally, 
on so short notice, and decided for myself that I would 
live. This was the beginning of my convalescence. 

At this time, my second surgeon, having been de- 
tailed to a hospital distant a few miles, was able to get 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 225 

away and see me. He brought me some medicines ; 
but his prescription was in substance the same as that 
of the other physicians — repose, calmness, patience. 
This wearied me a little, which was a good symptom. 
I began to feel myself reviving by a vague disposition 
to get angry, if I had been strong enough. But how to 
regain strength .-* I had nothing to eat. Where could 
I find anything to help nature .-' 

My servants mounted on horseback and scoured the 
country, going from farm to farm, which were poor and 
far apart, endeavoring to purchase — money in one 
hand, revolver in the other — food for their sick colonel. 
The result of these expeditions for two weeks was — 
two skinny chickens and a mess of small fish. On 
passing by, the Confederates had not left anything for 
General Porter to protect. 

My foragers themselves escaped starving only thanks 
to the hard biscuit they had been able to pick up in the 
abandoned camps, where rations had been distributed, 
and to some salt provisions obtained with great trouble 
from the commissary sergeant. As to my hosts, all 
they had left to keep them from starvation was a quar- 
ter of pork and a sack of corn meal. They had had a 
cow, but her carcass was rotting at the back of the 
garden ; a dozen sheep, which they were always hoping 
to see return from the woods, into which they had fled, 
but they never returned ; some fowls, which the Con- 
federates had not wished to leave for the Yankees. 
They still had left with them a little negro boy, half 
naked, who thought only of running away, and whom 
Madame Turner did not encourage to remain, by box- 
ing his ears continually, — doubtless as a relief to her 
feelings. 

One day, my groom, who had gone out early in the 
morning in search of provisions, did not return at the 



2 26 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

usual hour. He was an old cavalry soldier, formerly 
bugler in the New York militia, whose uniform he still 
wore, and particularly inclined to show his skill in the 
handling of the sabre. Add to that, of a quarrelsome 
disposition and contemptuous bearing toward the people 
of the country. His absence gave me considerable 
uneasiness for him, and for the horse which he had 
ridden. In the isolated farms where he must go, and 
in the deserted woods which he must traverse, there 
were not wanting people who would think it a meritori- 
ous act to strike down a Yankee, if the opportunity 
occurred, with a fair chance of escaping with impunity. 

The afternoon passed without news and without 
provisions. But, at the approach of darkness, Shedel, 
posted near the window, said : — 

"There is Schmidt coming back." 

He then descended the stairs quickly. 

In a few minutes they made a triumphal entry to my 
room, — Shedel with his hands full of oranges and 
lemons ; Schmidt holding a bottle in each hand. 

" Colonel," said Schmidt, giving a military salute 
without putting down the bottles, " Madame G. sends 
you her compliments. She is very sorry to hear that 
you are ill, but hopes that you will soon recover, and 
meanwhile " (putting the things on a chair answering 
for a table) " here is a bottle of good bouillon and a 
bottle of old Sherry wine, besides some oranges and 
lemons, which she directed me to bring you." 

I rose to assure myself that the bugler had not found 
all those things at the bottom of a whiskey flask. But 
no ; Schmidt stood up as straight as an arrow, and the 
things spoken of were there before my eyes. 

" Ah yes ! I see the oranges and the bottles ; but 
what has Madame G. to do with all that .'' " 

" Really, colonel, she has everything to do with it, 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 22/ 

since it is slie who has sent them to you. A very lovely 
lady indeed, blonde, with blue eyes, and a black dress, 
as though she were a young widow. And she gave me 
my dinner, with a glass of good wine. She said, ' That 
poor colonel ! how sorry I am for him ! ' There were 
also some other ladies there, from New York." 

" There ! — where .-' " interrupting him, for I under- 
stood nothing of his strange story. 

" Where .■" At White House Landing." 

" Have you been to White House .-' " 

" Yes, indeed. Seeing that I could find nothing 
amongst these countrymen, I said to myself, ' Schmidt, 
why not go to White House .'' The supply base of the 
army is established there. You will be sure to bring 
back something.' Then I found out the road, and, as 
Turco is hardy, I was able to go and return without 
using him up." 

" And you found Madame G. there ? " 

" Yes, colonel. I met an Alsatian, a countryman of 
mine, who was detailed to the commissary department. 
He said to me : ' Do you see that great steamer ? That 
belongs to the Sanitary Commission. Go on board 
while I hold your horse. You will get everything you 
need there ; ladies who will give you everything you 
wish for your colonel.' And I found it to be true." 

This is how Schmidt after a day's absence had re- 
turned with full saddle-bags. 

These delicacies were like manna in the desert, to 
me. The sherry especially, which came from a noted 
stock, the 0/d Harmony, seemed to me more than wine. 
It was renewed life that Mrs. G. had sent to me, — con- 
solatrix afflictoruni. 

My quartermaster came the next day to give me the 
news of the regiment and bring me some letters. How 
far were the writers, when sending them, from foresee- 



2 28 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ing where I would receive them, and in what condition 
I would be when I read them. They were very gay in 
New York. War had put no stop to their pleasures. 
They congratulated me on our forward march. They 
were still ignorant of the part taken in the battle of 
Williamsburg by Peck's brigade, but they felicitated me 
on my good health. Life is full of these mockeries. 

Although for more than a week I had drunk deeply 
of the bitter cup, it was not yet exhausted. On the 
30th, in the night, a furious storm shook the Turner 
hut, and left me very little rest in my cot, poorly shel- 
tered from the rain. During the 31st it was still worse. 
The sound of the cannon took the place of the thunder, 
and I could not doubt that a bloody battle was being 
fought before Richmond. Sickness had doubtless 
developed in me an unusual acuteness of hearing ; for 
from my bed and through my open window I could not 
only hear the incessant detonation of the artillery, but 
even distinguish the musketry fire, although I was dis- 
tant six miles in a direct line from the field of battle. 
That was not all. The direction of the sounds revealed 
clearly to me that the enemy was gaining ground, and 
driving our troops back. 

In the afternoon, Schmidt, who had gone to find out 
the news, met a teamster, who told him that, at the 
moment when he left the brigade, the Fifty-fifth was 
going forward, without knapsacks, and at double quick, 
to charge the enemy. One can guess what a dreadful 
day I passed. My head began to throb. I could not 
keep quiet. I pictured to myself the left routed, the 
right cut to pieces, the flag lost perhaps. I wished to 
rise, but fell back upon my pillow, overwhelmed by the 
thought of my powerlessness, and by the first symptoms 
of the fever, which began its attacks upon me anew. 
Shedel endeavored to calm me. "Do not be uneasy," 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 229 

said he, "all will go well." And he told me everything 
that he could remember or imagine, to demonstrate to 
me that the regiment was composed entirely of heroes, 
and that those who had run at Williamsburg were still 
more determined than the others to repair an hour of 
feebleness by deeds without number. 

" Wait until to-morrow, colonel, and you will see." 

The waiting appeared long, terribly long, during 
that night of fever and anxiety, during which I could 
have heard every hour strike, if in that solitude the 
hours had had a voice to measure the silence. 

At last we heard some news, at first fragmentary, in- 
complete, and hardly intelligible, excepting in one point, 
on which all agreed : Tlie regiment had done gloriously. 
Soon the lieutenant-colonel, thinking how I must suffer 
from uncertainties, sent me by messenger a pencil note, 
which dissipated all my fears — and my fever along with 
them. 

Everybody, at this day, knows the history of the 
battle of Fair Oaks, which was fought more at Seven 
Pines, where the Fourth Corps was encamped, than at 
Fair Oaks. Our army was unfortunately placed on 
both sides of the Chickahominy, the three corps of 
Sumner, Fitz-John Porter, and Franklin on the left 
bank, forming altogether an effective force of sixty 
thousand men. On the right bank, the two corps of 
Heintzelman and Keyes, reduced to four divisions, 
amounted to scarcely thirty thousand men, badly placed. 

Casey's division had been thrown forward three- 
quarters of a mile from Seven Pines, where Couch's 
division was placed. The Third Corps was much 
farther back on the Williamsburg road. In front, this 
left wing of the army was almost without communica- 
tion with the centre and the right wing. Bottom's 
Bridge and the railroad bridge were so situated as to 



230 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

make them unavailable for the purpose of sending over 
reenforcements, and, of the two bridges thrown across 
the river by Sumner, one had just been carried away 
by the rise of the water, and the other was in momen- 
tary danger of breaking when the Confederates made 
their attack. 

General Keyes had several times called attention to 
the danger of his position, but without success. Gen- 
eral Heintzelman, who commanded the left wing, could 
only obey the directions of the general-in-chief. To 
the reiterated objections of General Keyes, he replied, 
on the 29th of May, the day before the battle : " The 
position of our corps was selected by General Barnard 
and Lieutenant Comstock of the Engineers, and the 
instructions to occupy them came from Major-General 
McClellan. The commander-in-chief also ordered that 
the Third Corps should not be thrown forward, except 
to prevent yours from being driven back by the 
enemy." If General McClellan had wished to deliver 
up his left to the enemy, he could not have better taken 
his measures. 

Invited in this manner to destroy the Fourth Corps, 
General Johnston did not wait to be urged. May 31, 
about eleven o'clock in the morning, he fell like an ava- 
lanche on Casey's division, which defended itself as 
well as possible, but was quickly overwhelmed. Eight 
of his guns were about to be captured when General 
Keyes ran himself to send in the Fifty-fifth to save 
them. The regiment went in on a run, led by General 
Nagley, who put it in position. Deployed rapidly be- 
tween the enemy and the threatened pieces, it sustained 
the attack of a brigade without wavering, and the 
enemy was forced to stop before its obstinate resistance. 
For a whole hour it remained there, unshaken by every 
attack, and fell back only, its object accomplished, to 



DAYS OF SUFFERING. 23 I 

renew its exhausted ammunition, and render still 
further services. On that day it saved the guns, but 
lost more than a fourth of its effective strength, 
amongst them a large number of officers wounded. 

Couch's division fought with a tenacity shown by the 
list of its losses, and especially by those of the enemy, 
who, although in overwhelming force, did not succeed 
in his object before two brigades of Kearney's division 
had arrived to support Couch. Nevertheless, in spite 
of this reenforcement, after having reformed its broken 
lines three times, it would probably have been de- 
stroyed if, towards the close of the day, the appear- 
ance of Sumner on his right had not changed the face 
of things, who, profiting by the only bridge which was 
left to him by which to cross the river, hastened 
to the sound of the cannon. The promptness and 
vigor with which he entered into line at Fair Oaks 
decided the fortunes of the day. The dearly bought 
successes of the enemy stopped at that point, and the 
next day were turned into defeat, when he was easily 
thrown back into his lines from the ground which he 
had taken the first day, at the price of seven thousand 
men. 

Ours did not exceed five thousand. But the loss of 
the Fourth Corps was two-fifths of the whole. Of its 
nine generals eight were wounded, or had their horses 
killed under them ; General Peck was amongst the 
latter. 

Four regiments of the brigade were engaged (the 
Ninth Pennsylvania was on detached service). Of 
the four commanders, one, Colonel Riker of the Sixty- 
second New York, was killed ; MacCarter and Rawley of 
the Ninety-third and One Hundred and Second Penn- 
sylvania were wounded. The fourth, who was my 
lieutenant-colonel, had his horse killed under him. The 



232 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

loss amongst the other officers \va# proportionately 
great. These figures have a significant eloquence. 

General McClellan remained as inactive at the battle 
of Fair Oaks as he had been at that of Williamsburg. 
At the sound of the musketry he contented himself by 
sending an order to General Sumner, which the latter 
had already anticipated by putting his two divisions in 
motion, and he remained in his tent, not feeling very 
well, as he explained afterwards before the Congres- 
sional committee. The next morning he finally con- 
cluded to mount his horse and cross the Chickahominy, 
when everything was over, to order back Hooker, who, 
with his division, had advanced within four miles of 
Richmond without meeting any opposition. The 
greater part of our generals — Heintzelman, Keyes, 
Casey, Hooker, and many others with them — thought 
then, and think yet, that after the battle of Fair Oaks 
the Confederate capital was at our mercy if the army 
had advanced on the heels of the retreating enemy. 
But the army did not stir. 

Of course, I was ignorant then of all these details ; at 
the time of the battle I knew only one thing, the good 
conduct of the regiment. The newspapers did not 
reach my hut ; all the noise, all the movement between 
the army and its base of supplies at White House were 
for me as if they did not exist. 

Around the house was a large abandoned field, sur- 
rounded by great woods. On all sides the ground was 
covered by the thousand remains that soldiers leave 
behind them in abandoned camps : poles stuck in the 
ground, withered branches, broken cracker boxes, empty 
pork barrels, extinguished fires, ashes soaked by the 
rain, pieces of uniform, worn-out shoes, bloody remains 
of slaughtered beeves, heads with horns on, stiff hides, 
decavins: entrails. What a refreshing si£:ht for the 



BAIS O'F SOTEILniiG. 233 

eres of a co^rrvslsscsmt I Amid vet tiiat was tiie : 
vTiSfw I Iiaid ircEiu nnrr wimidiO'w ; ^-mirf it -was fn '~ - " 

by littLe, nny weataaed f oroes. 

TTiiese dars were dreaxv amd btner. Mt rLic>SL5 ■were 
distressiiir-T i^BtoraiEL Xfaier fciaew miotiiiiiig' aLoMt sjtt- 
th TTi g" . ^tir existensoe was miereiT ve^etataoia om tw^o 
teeL i nerc was no opp<c>rtiiiviitT for even, a siiadow oc a 
conTersariiQiiL The wQ-imin spent hex life dressnnig- iuer 
hnSibaad, foe wfaiocn stue carded, '^[jiniw.^ amid wo>*'e tTnip- wool 
and cut and sewed tbe garnnjetLts. Old Ttumiier, mot be- 
ing able to dig' in the gronmid any lionger. djd ncBt know 
wnat to do witb bT"; great bodr. He went OTHt. ramniie- nn-y 
stretched himself on a chair, or sat do^wn on the door- 
sin, a.s.Vfng him self why his sheep b iar f not yet rernnaed. 
A true spedmen of tbatt rT:a:g;'.«;.^ interm^ediate between 
the pianter and the sLare, which the oiIigarchT of the 
S'Ccth kent in snbi'ection bv raeans of his ignoirance 
a~i nis poTerty, and froim which, at this tune, it drew 
its ample supply of food foT po>wdier. 

Tum'Sr, however, was not without some Iitti'e :ze5. :c 
hist-OTT. He ^..^iri heard from the old men — as he in- 
form'ed me — that Amierica b^ar? been discovered by a 
great misn bv the name of Was-hington, who had driven 
awaj the British wiih the aid of a famoius French genr 
eral caHed Bo^naparte- He had never heard of an 
empeTtwr by the name c£ Napoleon. 

However, the quartermaster and the second surgeom 
of the regiment b:a.ri co^me to see m^e, and found that, for 
want of suitable nourishmient, I couM not recover my 
strength. They urged me to ask for a leave of absence 
for two or three weeks, whi'Ch I decidedly refused to do 
as my regiment was still in front of the enemy. Thev 
consulted togeth^er in regard to b-ringing my oo'odition 
to the knowledge of General Keyes, who batd oftoi 



234 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

inquired about me. The doctor drew up a statement 
giving the reasons why a leave of absence was absolutely 
necessary to my recovery. The quartermaster took it 
to the general himself, adding personal explanations, 
and in a few days he returned to hand me special order 
No. 64 from the headquarters of the Fourth Corps, which 
granted me fifteen days' leave of absence, to go North, 
that I might recruit my health, broken by sickness. 

On June 9, I bade adieu to the Turners, who, although 
rebels, did not hesitate to take the pay for their hospi- 
tality in grccjibacks. I climbed, with great exertion, on 
my horse, my head a little flighty, my heart somewhat 
weak, and departed, followed by my little caravan. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 

The victims of the Chickahominy — The army railroad — Peregrinations 
of a friend in search of me — Hospital tents — Agreeable surprise — 
Origin of the Sanitary Commission — Difficulties thrown in the way 
— Services rendered — The commission transports — Herculean la- 
bors — Strifes — The loads of sick humanity — Horrible realities — 
The miracles of charity. 

The nearest point where I could reach the railroad was 
Despatch Station. Our road to that point was one long 
series of mud-holes which we had to avoid by taking 
paths scarcely marked out. We proceeded slowly ; but 
the air was sweet and we were in no hurry, so that, be- 
fore the passage of the train, I had plenty of time to call 
at the house where Dr. Arthaud had his patients, — all 
sick, the wounded having been sent directly to White 
House. 

On dismounting, the first person I met was General 
Nagley, who, under orders of General Keyes, had led 
the Fifty-fifth into action at Seven Pines. He congratu- 
lated me on the good conduct of my men, adding that 
they had done more than had been asked of them, — 
" for," said he, " an hour after having left them, long 
after the guns had been saved, I still found them in the 
same place, obstinately maintaining their position, from 
which they did not fall back until ordered." 

The surgeon led me to a room on the ground floor, 
where he had collected the sick belonging to my com- 
mand. It was a sad sight. These men, whom I had 
left twenty days before full of life and health, lay there, 
wan, emaciated, on a bit of straw where sickness held 

23s 



236 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

them ; some attacked by the terrible marsh fever, 
others tortured by rheumatism, others again exhausted 
by dysentery. 

When I advanced into the room, these brave men, 
forgetting their own sufferings, appeared to think only 
of those of which I bore the evident marks. And yet 
what had they not endured .-* On May 31, while they 
were lighting in the position assigned to them, their 
camp had fallen into the hands of the enemy. They 
had lost everything there : tents, knapsacks, provi- 
sions, blankets. Since then, without shelter from the 
burning heat of the day, without protection against 
the heavy dews of the night, breathing an air 
infected by foul exhalations, drinking the marshy 
water poisoned by dead bodies, they daily saw their 
ranks diminished by a new consignment to the 
hospital. 

This is where General McClellan had led his army. 
Not to Richmond, where it might and should have been 
at that hour ; but in the swamps of the Chickahominy, 
where the fire of the enemy was less to be feared than 
the ravages of a deadly climate. 

My quartermaster had his quarters near Despatch 
Station. I left my servants and my horses in his 
charge, and took my seat in the train which was to 
carry me to White House. 

The train was made up of freight cars. There were 
no others on the line designed especially to provision 
the army. In case of necessity they could be used to 
transport the troops, the wounded, and the sick. Those 
who were travelling by themselves, officers and soldiers, 
stowed themselves away as best they could, without 
regard to rank, amongst the boxes and barrels, the 
sacks of oats and bundles of hay. As, after having 
unloaded its cargo, the train returned empty, we were 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 237 

more favored as to room than as to cleanliness. But, 
amongst us, — all wounded or sick, — nobody troubled 
himself about so little a thing. It was a great priv- 
ilege to be able to stretch one's self on a dusty floor, or 
sit down on a small valise. 

The locomotive advanced with an exasperating slow- 
ness. The train stopped every few moments, for one 
cause or another, where the detachments guarding the 
road were posted. About noon, the engine left the 
cars on a side track. We had arrived. Arrived where ? 
On the edge of a muddy plain, which stretched far 
away, and at the end of which we could see in the dis- 
tance a collection of tents amongst the trees, and masts 
of ships. There was White House Landing. The dif- 
ficulty was to reach it. Not a vehicle was in sight ; 
not one was expected. Every one then made his way 
to the riverside in the best way he could. 

I would have done as the others did ; my legs might 
be just able to carry me there. But what should I do 
with my valise .-' However light it might be, it was still 
too heavy for my emaciated limbs, on which my uni- 
form fitted about as well as an old coat hung on a stick 
for a scarecrow. A sergeant came along, with his arm 
in a sling. He was searching for his wounded captain, 
whom the train should have brought, but who was not 
among the passengers. I asked him when the steamer 
left for Fortress Monroe. "To-morrow morning, at 
eight o'clock." "Is there any place between here and 
the landing where one can get something to eat and 
can sleep .^ " Not to his knowledge. "Is the steamer 
which leaves in the morning at the landing.^" "It 
will not come until half after eight this evening." 
" Can one sleep on the vessel .'' " " Not unless you 
have special permission .-• " " Where can I find the 
steamer of the Sanitary Commission ? " There were 



238 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

several of them, but they had all gone north, loaded 
with wounded after the battle of Fair Oaks. 

While this discouraging conversation was going on, 
a small black boy came along, looking for an opportu- 
nity to earn a little something. He took my valise 
and followed me towards the river. That was the best 
I could do to find out where I must go. After stop- 
ping two or three times to rest and take my breath, I 
finally reached the river, painfully dragging along my 
boots heavy with mud. 

I found there a fleet of transports, of every size and 
every kind, steamers, sailing vessels, barges without 
sails or steam ; and along the bank, shaded by great 
trees, stretched a village of tents, of every size, in- 
habited by quartermasters, commissaries, sutlers, sol- 
diers, and workingmen, black and white. Artillery 
wagons, drawn by six mules each and driven by 
negroes, were travelling ab(Jut in every direction ; the 
wagon masters, on horseback, were coming and going ; 
workmen were unloading the ships ; steam whistles 
were signalling each other. Everything was in motion 
in that human ant-hill. 

Leaning against a rail put up for holding horses, I 
looked on passively at this spectacle, humiliated to feel 
that the fatigue of a short walk, the gnawings of an 
empty stomach, and bodily feebleness could produce 
such confusion in my ideas and disturbance in the 
exercise of my mental faculties. At this moment a 
friendly face appeared, and immediately Frederic L. 
Olmsted warmly shook my hand. "At last we have 
you ! We have had trouble enough to find you ! Do 
you know that we were very vmeasy on your account ? 
But come on. Here are some friends, who will be happy 
to see you again alive." And, passing his arm under 
mine, he led me toward a small steamboat of the 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 239 

Sanitary Commission, of which he was chief secretary. 
I was beside myself with inner joy, in feeUng that I 
had reached the end of my trials, and the satisfaction 
of knowing that I had not been forgotten during my 
days of illness, although, to tell the truth, I did not 
understand who had been looking for me, nor why I 
had been expected. 

The enigma was soon explained. The New York 
newspapers had done me the honor to concern them- 
selves about me. They had announced that I had 
been left dying in a little farmhouse on the Peninsula, 
the precise locality of which they could not state. The 
arrival of my servant on board the Sanitary Commis- 
sion steamer led them to suppose I could not be far 
away ; but, as he did not come back again, the lack of 
news led them to suppose the worst. Upon which a 
medical student, who was closely related to me by 
marriage, had taken a horse and searched the whole 
surrounding country to bring me back, dead or alive. 
A first unsuccessful trip had not discouraged him, and 
when I reached White House he had been gone two 
days on another trip. He received news of me only 
on seeing me the evening of his return, surrounded by 
such kind attention as almost to give one a desire to 
be sick, in order to receive such a welcome. 

I will not publish the names of the American ladies 
who, in the performance of a great patriotic work, wel- 
comed me on board the Wilson Small. I respect too 
highly their modesty, that virtue whose charm adds a 
peculiar grace to the merits of womanly devotion. But, 
if I do not publish their names here, they are not the 
less graven on the thankful hearts of many more than 
will be found readers of this book. 

Dr. Haight, the young surgeon, was not the only one 
who had set out in search of me. There was a family 



240 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

from Tours living in New York, two members of which, 
young women, had accompanied my family to America, 
in 1847, when I was arrested in France on my return 
from Italy. Their affairs had prospered greatly in the 
new world, where, in the course of a few years, they had 
brought over to their American home their aged father 
and the orphan children of a sister who had died young. 
One of them had married that officer of the Fifty-fifth 
militia who had proposed and made successful my can- 
didacy for the command of the regiment. On entering 
the family, he had adopted their feelings of affection for 
me and mine. So that, when the news of my condition 
reached them, Ferran took his carpet-bag, and, leaving 
the charge of his business to a clerk, set out for Balti- 
more. He had served seven years in Africa, and there- 
fore knew what he had undertaken to do. But he was 
not the man to be rebuffed by difficulties. 

At Baltimore, he had to go the rounds of the offices, 
in order to obtain a permit for passage to Fortress Mon- 
roe. The object of his journey being stated, the pass 
was given to him, and the next morning, debarking on 
the encumbered wharf, he sought the hotel, bag in hand. 
Two-thirds of the rooms were taken by the govern- 
ment, for the medical service, and the remainder con- 
sisted of but a few rooms, more than full, always 
engaged in advance. But one could sleep on the floor 
of the dining-room, trusting his bag to the baggage 
man. Ferran did not ask for anything better. 

He went to headquarters for information. I was 
acquainted with several officers there ; but none of them 
knew anything of my whereabouts, and they advised 
him to see the surgeon-in-chief, director of the hospi- 
tals, which stretched in the distance towards Hampton. 
Ferran started for the hospitals. 

Doctor Cuyler received him pleasantly, was very 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 24 1 

obliging, had the registers and reports searched, but, 
finding there no trace of my presence, advised him to 
visit the different sections, where he would probably 
come across some of the wounded of the Fifty-fifth, 
and perhaps learn from them where to find me. Fer- 
ran commenced his rounds. 

During the entire day he went from tent to tent, and 
from' bed to bed, seeing the sick and wounded, asking 
the surgeons, talking with the men, and learned nothing 
more than he knew already, that I had been left some- 
where, in a condition from which the worst might be 
feared. The third day, at the end of his search, he 
returned to find Dr. Cuyler and ask his advice. — "In 
your place," said the doctor to him, " I would go to 
White House. There are a large number of hospitals 
there, and it is quite probable that the colonel might 
be found in one of them." 

Ferran returned to headquarters, obtained a pass for 
White House, left his valise at the hotel, and started 
that night on the mail-boat, determined, if it was neces- 
sary, to go even to the regiment. To his great satisfac- 
tion, he met on the boat a New York merchant of his 
acquaintance. Mr. Meeks had two sons in the service. 
One, my quartermaster, attacked by typhoid fever on 
the Warwick, was then at home, where he was slowly 
regaining his health. The other had been wounded — 
some said killed — at Fair Oaks. In the absence of 
positive news, the father had started for the army, not 
knowing whether he would take his son home living or 
dead. Mr. Meeks and Ferran felt themselves naturally 
drawn together by the similarity of the object of their 
journey. They agreed to act together in their efforts 
when they landed at White House, asking where they 
could find supper, or, at least, a place to lodge during 
the night. 



242 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

That day had not been one of repose for me. My 
moral force strengthened by the hospitality of the 
Sanitary Commission, and my physical by the first 
substantial meal I had eaten for more than a month, I 
had gone off the steamer, attracted by a red kepi that 
I perceived near a sutler's tent. It was, in fact, one 
of my men, who, wounded in the head, had come there 
from the hospital to see what he could see. When he 
had replied to my questions, — 

"Colonel," said he, "our men who are at the hospital 
would be very glad to see you. Can you not give them 
the pleasure .'' " 

I wished nothing better, but I was afraid of my 
strength. 

" Is it very far .'' " I asked. 

"Not very far. We follow the road to the trees you 
see there. Then we turn to the right, across the fields, 
for a short distance." 

If I had been alone, I doubt whether I would have 
tried it. But the honest lad insisted with so much 
earnestness on the pleasure the visit would give to the 
wounded, that I started with him. 

Half-way to the hospital, we sat down on a fallen 
tree, before crossing a wide field, on the other side of 
which the white tents of the hospital glistened in the 
sun. My guide was more active than I ; he laughed 
occasionally, under the bandages with which his head 
was enveloped, thinking of the agreeable surprise which 
he was about to give his comrades, in bringing them 
their colonel. For my part, I forgot my fatigue when 
I found myself amongst them. The hospital was in 
fine condition, and they were well cared for. I listened 
to their stories of the battle of Seven Pines, I encour- 
aged them in their hopes of soon rejoining the regi- 
ment, and finally left them, thinking of the different 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 243 

effect which wounds and sickness have on the morale 
of men. Wounds appear to affect only the physical 
constitution ; the moral force remains intact and pre- 
serves all its vigor. They still exulted in the remem- 
brances of the fight. — How they had rolled up those 
Johnny rebs ! They had poured into them such a fire 
as if Heaven itself had taken up arms against them. 
The faster the rebels came on, the more they covered 
the ground with them. 

" Ah, colonel ! What a pity you were not there ! 
That is what you may call a battle. Williamsburg was 
all well enough to commence with. But, in comparison 
with Seven Pines, it was only small beer. And yet, 
after all that, the army did not go into Richmond ! 
Well, we must have patience ; it will not be long. I 
hope we will be able to return before the grand final 
tableau ! " 

So spoke the wounded men. What a contrast with 
the sick, whom I visited at Despatch Station. The 
latter had lost, with their physical power, all their 
moral courage. Discouraged and disgusted with every- 
thing, insensible to hope and even desires, they asked 
from life but one thing, relief from suffering. The 
full activity of the faculties of the mind are then 
dependent on the action of the bodily organs. When 
the latter suffer certain material disorders, the mind 
becomes paralyzed in its immateriality. A condition 
not flattering to human vanity, but the fact of which I 
less than any one can call in doubt. 

I returned to the steamer so tired, both in body and 
mind, that I could only receive with the humility of 
a guilty conscience the reproofs for my imprudence. 
They made for me a camp bed, in a place where I could 
be watched and where I soon fell into a deep sleep. 

When I awoke, it was night. The lamps were 



244 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

lig'hted in the cabin, but the one on the table near me 
was so shaded by a screen interposed as not to inter- 
rupt my sleep. The sound of a voice in the room had 
recalled me from the land of dreams. I opened my 
eyes, and saw a person unknown to me, on the last step 
of the stairs, who, hat in hand, was asking the doctor a 
number of questions, to which I paid little attention. 
All that I caught was that he was inquiring with much 
solicitude about some friend or relative, who was 
wounded. Behind him, in the shade, stood a second 
figure, motionless and as if waiting his turn, who from 
the first took all my attention. Well, thought I, there 
is a man who bears a striking resemblance to Ferran. 
I then turned on my hed, tq go to sleep again. 

The conversation continued. I thought of the feat- 
ures of the stranger. I wished to examine them further, 
and rose up softly on my elbow. I had never seen 
so extraordinary a resemblance. But it was absurd to 
suppose it could be Ferran. What reason in the world 
could bring him from New York to White House .-* I 
began to fear that it was an illusion of my brain, tired 
by exertion, and, resting on my pillow, I tried to think 
no more about it. Then it seemed to me that the con- 
versation ceased, and the two inquirers started to depart. 
I wished to be sure. If it is he, I said to myself, he 
will recognize his own name. I called, " Ferran," in a 
low voice. 

On hearing that word, Ferran sprang into the middle 
of the room, as if sent by a spring. " Colonel ! my good 
colonel, where are you .^ " "Here, my friend, here." 
He followed the sound and seized the hand I extended 
to him " Thank God ! " he cried, " I will lead you back 
to life." 

The Sanitary Commission, which sheltered me, was 
an admirable institution, brought forth by the war. By 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 245 

the immense service it rendered, it well illustrated the 
old proverb, whicli might serve as a device : " A?ix 
grand niaux Ics grands remcdcs.'' (For great evils, great 
remedies.) As Minerva sprang, full-armed, from the 
brain of Jupiter, the commission sprang, fully organized, 
from the brain of Rev. Dr. Bellows, a Unitarian clergy- 
man of New York. Animated by a true philanthropy, 
endowed with a highly practical mind, with an indefat- 
igable activity. Dr. Bellows conceived the first idea of 
concentrating into a vast unity of administration and 
action the scattered associations spontaneously organ- 
ized to aid the medical service of the army, but the 
isolated efforts of which rather showed good intentions 
than led to any great results. 

To unite under a common direction all these patriotic 
good-wills, to arrange systematically their spheres of 
activity with the disposition of the vast voluntary con- 
tributions to be drawn from the liberality of the people 
of the loyal States, and, finally, to place the management 
of the great work under the patronage and control of 
the federal government, without asking from it the 
help of a man or a dollar, — such was the plan conceived 
and realized. 

It is only necessary to mention the amount contrib- 
uted, to show the generosity of the people and the 
zeal of the commission. During the war, the Sanitary 
Commission collected and distributed to the armies 
tiuenty inillions of dollars, having received five millions 
in money and fifteen millions in supplies. 

But, before reaching any results, it had to meet with 
many difficulties and surmount many obstacles. It was 
necessary to humor the official susceptibility, quick to 
take alarm at any appearance of rivalry ; it had to strive 
against the spirit of the bureau, narrow and devoted to 
routine, always opposed to innovations. It was also 



246 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

necessary to demonstrate the practicability of the 
undertaking, to the sceptical spirits, who, as one of the 
commission explained to me, saw only, in the plan pro- 
posed, a sentimental theory, lacking practical sense, 
conceived by tender-hearted women, charitable clergy- 
men, and philanthropic physicians, deserving only the 
consideration due to the earnestness and respectable 
character of its advocates. President Lincoln himself 
frankly told Dr. Bellows that he feared the commission 
would be a fiftJi wheel to a coach, more embarrassing 
than useful. 

However, the committee on organization had modestly 
formulated its views in a manner not to give umbrage 
to any one. " The object of the organization," it had 
declared publicly, "will be to collect and distribute in- 
formation obtained from ofificial sources concerning the 
present and probable needs of the army ; to form a 
connection with the medical corps of the army and of the 
States, and to assist their efforts as auxiliaries ; to con- 
nect itself with the New York medical association for 
the supply of lint, bandages, etc. ; to provide a depot of 
supplies ; to solicit the aid of all local associations, here 
and elsewhere, who desire the assistance of this society, 
and especially to open an office for the examination and 
registration of candidates for the medical instruction of 
the nurses ; and, finally, to take measures to furnish a 
number of good nurses sufficient for all possible needs 
of the war." 

This programme was, as will be seen, only as the 
acorn to the oak ; but still it took more than six weeks 
of journeys back and forth, of explanations, of strife 
even, in order to make a start. Finally, June 13, 1861, 
the President, on the proposal of the Secretary of War, 
approved the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry 
and Advice, in respect to the sanitary interests of the 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 247 

United States' forces, without remuneration from the 
government. The commission was composed at that 
time of nine members, under the presidency of Dr. 
Bellows, and, in cooperation with a military surgeon 
detailed for that purpose, immediately set to work. 

In the first place, it completed its organization by 
the addition of new members, the appointment of a 
treasurer, chief secretary, the formation of sub-commit- 
tees in the East and in the West, the despatch of 
sanitary inspectors to the armies and of agents to the 
different States. Finally, such was its activity and 
the rapidity of its progress that, even before the first 
shock of arms, it was ready to aid our sick and wounded 
after having taken the initiative in many salutary 
measures for the health and well-being of our soldiers. 
Since then, and up to the end of the war, with no other 
resources than the liberality of the people, with no 
other assistance than that of its employes, the commis- 
sion pursued its work of patriotic charity on a scale 
corresponding to the great proportions of the conflict. 
Wherever our armies fought, wherever there were any 
sufferings to assuage or sick to relieve, upon the field 
of battle or in the hospital, amongst the camps and in 
the garrisons, for the men assembled under the flag 
and for those whom sickness or wounds sent singly to 
their homes, the Sanitary Commission was always 
there, as indefatigable in its devotion as it was inex- 
haustible in its assistance. 

The medical service of the army was so poorly 
organized, so entirely insufficient to provide for the 
most pressing necessities, that, during the first year of 
the war, a large part of its functions fell upon the Sani- 
tary Commission. It was the commission, for instance, 
which had to take charge of the transportation to the 
North of the greater part of the sick and wounded of 



/ 



248 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the Army of the Potomac during the campaign of the 
Peninsula. Without it a large number of the unfort- 
unates whom it nursed and took care of before their 
embarkation and during the trip would never have seen 
their families again or reappeared in the ranks. And 
this was only a part of the services of a branch of the 
Aid Department, at a time when the average of the sick 
in the federal armies had reached the proportion of 
one-seventh of the whole number, and when the perma- 
nent and temporary hospitals had to provide for a hun- 
dred thousand sick and wounded. 

In the service of the hospital transports, so necessary 
to the Army of the Potomac, the government furnished 
only the vessels. They were great steamers engaged 
for the transport of the troops, and which, when the 
troops had debarked on the Peninsula, were without 
immediate work, although they were costing the gov- 
ernment six and eight hundred, and even as high as 
a thousand dollars a day. Eight or ten were succes- 
sively transferred to the commission in the condition in 
which they were found. It was first necessary to clean 
them from one end to the other. Then the interior 
arrangement had to be changed to serve the needs of 
their new duties. The commission put on board the 
necessary employes, and provided everything requi- 
site for the use of the sick and wounded, — food and 
drink, mattresses, blankets, linen, etc. 

The first vessel used by the commission, the Daniel 
Webster, arrived at the end of April at the depot, 
when the army was before Yorktown, with a service 
perfectly organized, of six medical students, twenty 
nurses (all volunteers without pay), four surgeons, four 
associate ladies, twelve freedmen, three carpenters, 
and a half-dozen boys for common service. I state 
thus exactlv, in order to give an insight into the. personal 



THE SANITARY GOMMISSiOX. 249 

put on bc^rd hy the comxnissioxi under ordiiiaiy arcmii- 
siaiices. In time of mvent need nHrKt-innail aid vas 
sent, in accordance with the necessities of the serwice. 

Mar I, two vessels, loaded with prorisioiis. arrrred si 
the depot, wLere ibe commission had, besides, a si^sll 
steamer, the \Mlson Small, intended to be tssed to 
ascend the rivers, to a point where tner became shallow, 
to bring down the sick and wounded. Tbere the com- 
mittee established its headquarters. 

On the next day everybody was at work. Tbe Wil- 
son Small brought back from its first trip thiny-nve 
sick. The ladies went through the hospital teats, 
taking with them spirit lamps, bowls of graeL lemons, 
brand}-, and clean linen ; while on board the Web- 
ster, already hs'fjpll of patients, other provisions 
were distributed on the requisition of the surgeons, 
some of whom came for miles through the swamps and 
mud-holes to get them. 

Bur what was thai ? Ba: an insignificant pre! jde to 
the labors soon to become necessan. 

On the 4th of May, when the army moved suiiez.y, 
as a result of the evacuation ot Yorktown by the 
enemv, all the sick were necessaril\- left behind. The 
surgeons, not wishing to prolong their stay in the abai^- 
doned lines, and in a hurn^ to rejoin their regiments, 
made haste to get rid of their patients by sending them 
as quicklv as possible either to Yorktown or to Chees- 
man Creek, where, after ha\Tng been piled into ambu- 
lances and jolted over the roads, the unfortunates were 
abandoned to the Sanitan* Commission, which, it was 
said, had taken uoon itself the duly of caring for them. 
As it happened at this time, the commission had not a 
transport at its disposal. The Daniel Webster had 
de-Darted for the Xorth, with a full load of sick, and 
the Ocean Oueeh, designed to take her place, arrived. 



250 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

it is true, but empty, without any preparation or pro- 
visioning of any kind, without an employe of the 
commission, which, indeed, had not yet taken possession 
of her. No matter ; as soon as she appeared, two 
barges overloaded with sick came alongside, and, in 
spite of all remonstrances, without an hour of delay for 
the most necessary preparations, their loads of suffering 
humanity were poured into her. Other loads followed 
in turn. Those who were able to stand were pushed 
upon the deck : the others, carried on board in the 
arms of the bearers, were laid down exhausted, dying. 
Among them were many attacked with typhoid fever ; 
some delirious, and all put down in the first vacant 
place which could be found. 

Fortunately, a reenforcement of surgeons, nurses, 
and assisting ladies had come on from Baltimore. 
Negroes were not difficult to find. Supplies soon ar- 
rived from the depot — provisions, mattresses, and blank- 
ets. Little by little order was established, and towards 
midnight the living were attended to ; in the morning, 
a half-dozen dead were to be buried. But the next 
morning new arrivals filled up the boat, until it was 
absolutely loaded down. And yet, when the anchoi* 
was raised, the patients were distributed according to 
their diseases, and the service was completely organ- 
ized. All that in two days. 

Some hundreds of sick yet remained, brought to 
Yorktown in wagons from the different abandoned 
camps on the Warwick line. These poor fellows were 
tumbled into the mud while the tents were being put 
up to receive them. The committee supplied them with 
provisions from its magazines, and hastened to reach 
West Point, where the battle of Williamsburg had just 
cut out an abundance of work for it. 

They sent back as many wounded as the Wilson 



I 



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p - - ^ " i. 2S aZ jcnr I rfJe scack ^jc 

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po£C i._ _ : ;:s:l brers. Ir Tsrs3 i: :.. -^ :._.3e ifsii: liie 

trsjiiC":'-^ zcr sazk zz>i vrcsaed tc? t&e Soci^aciis at 



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pr:c:rre£ xr 2nj rc5oe : Tsrbi.i oisaiM ebqc be i^fecsMied. 

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oooAdB^ appSaaces sB&gxm. &»r a cxit^ c£ iKV)ta»^^ 
tbe I^ibAs of ToridbmnL i&e ab££»ii£»Bed cuoips. id&e Sffit- 
less' dJEsraantHed e^ab&siaMAts aore SQurciiied tkro^agk. 
to see viaat cam be foaad tfaadt viH aasvertlte p«a!r|!<9se. 
One n^t Hie steauner K]ik:iesboci:eT is nade leadf 
to take a load of sick ayod wwaaded. An oroer cones 



252 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

from the quartermaster-general, who, in a hurry, has 
forgotten that the steamer had been transferred to the 
commission. No matter ; it is an order ; it must be 
obeyed ; and immediately the Knickerbocker is under 
way, carrying off, on a purely military errand, the 
sanitary employes and the ladies in charge. In the 
morning, the committee find that their boat is gone. 
They go everywhere for information. Finally, the 
mistake is acknowledged. The steamer will return ; 
but it is a day lost. 

The next day, a telegram from the medical director 
at Williamsburg wishes a steamer in two hours, to take 
on board two hundred wounded from Queen's Creek. 
Other arrangements had been made, but they were 
immediately changed, and the boat arrived at the point 
designated. No wounded there. The medical director, 
not counting on such punctuality, had not yet sent his 
convoy. More delays. The loading was not made 
until early in the following day. Then it is a brigade 
surgeon, who, having the convoy in his charge, and not 
understanding the limits of his authority, assumes to 
exercise on board the vessel the same power as in his 
hospital tents. Protest is made by the general sec- 
retary, who, in order to secure the powers of the com- 
mission and to maintain its arrangements, is compelled 
to go to Williamsburg on a wagon loaded with forage. 
The surgeon is finally brought back to his proper 
sphere by an order in correct form, while the hundreds 
of wounded, eaten up with flies and mosquitoes, wait 
on the river bank, with an impatience easy to under- 
stand. 

In the evening, while the work of putting them on 
board was being completed, Mr. Olmsted went up the 
river in the yawl, to be certain that no one was left 
behind, and four miles from all assistance, without 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 253 

help or nourishment, he found eight unfortunates, on 
the borders of a wood, where, the night before, two 
wagoners had been assassinated by the people of the 
neighborhood. These poor fellows, stricken down by 
the fever, and incapable of following the marching 
column, had wandered around at random, refused by 
the hospitals because they did not have their papers 
from their captains or the surgeons of their regiments. 
One of them died as they were putting him on board 
the steamer. 

At this moment an officer arrived, requesting that a 
steamer be sent as soon as possible to Bigelow's Land- 
ing, where, according to the report of the ambulance 
wagon master, " a hundred poor soldiers had been left 
to die without shelter, in a driving storm, without help 
or provisions." En route then for Bigelow's Landing. 

But at the moment when the anchor is being raised 
a small steamboat hails her, and the surgeon in charge 
comes on board and asks that the commission should 
immediately take a hundred and fifty patients, collected 
that morning at West Point, and who have remained the 
whole day without the least nourishment. " The weather 
was rainy and cold," said Mr. Olmsted. "I hesitated 
at first, on account of the greater urgency which 
called us to Bigelow's Landing. But, the surgeon hav- 
ing induced me to glance into the interior of the cabin, 
I changed my mind. The narrow room was as full and 
crowded as it could be with sick soldiers, sitting on 
the floor. There was not room for them to lie down. 
Only two or three were stretched out at full length. 
One of them was dying, — was dead when my eyes 
rested on him a second time. Everything terribly 
dirty, and the air suffocating. We began immediately 
to take them on board the Knickerbocker." 

It was midnight when the transfer was finished. At 



254 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

nine o'clock two other boats had left for Bigelow's 
Landing. There were always several of the commis- 
sion ladies along. They were present everywhere. 
Nothing repelled them, nothing discouraged them, 
nothing frightened them. Their untiring devotion did 
not hesitate before anything which could relieve our 
sick and wounded, either in their reception on board 
the transports, or during the trip by sea. They were 
ready for any emergency, with a marvellous intelligence, 
never shrinking before loss of sleep, fatigue, or even 
danger. 

To reach Bigelow's Landing, it was necessary to use 
lighters and tow a barge, on which the sick were 
obliged to remain, exposed to a beating rain, until they 
had picked up eight or ten dying men, incapable of 
moving from the places here and there on the bank 
where they were lying. Twenty-four hours later, how 
many more would have been dead men .-' 

Such were, at a glance, the first labors of the Sani- 
tary Commission on the Peninsula, after the evacuation 
of Yorktown and the battle of Williamsburg. Each 
one of these vessels having carried North from three 
hundred to five hundred sick or wounded on each trip, 
it might have been hoped that the army hospitals, re- 
lieved to so great an extent, would be able, in a meas- 
ure, to care for new contingencies. But such was not 
the case. From the time when the troops were estab- 
lished on the marshy borders of the Chickahominy, their 
sanitary condition became worse from day to day, so 
that soon all the resources of the medical department 
became insufficient for the terrible quota of sick men 
drawn every morning from our decimated regiments. 
The supply of tents sent from Washington was not 
enough even to shelter all the patients whom the rail- 
roads brought to White House. The suro:eons hastened 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 255 

to send off on the commission transports all that they 
could carry. But these transports, though making con- 
tinual trips, were not able to take away the sick as fast 
as they arrived. There always remained some without 
shelter or care, exposed to all extremes of a deadly 
climate, and whom it was necessary to look after 
here and there, where they had been dropped. And 
always some died before it was possible to embark 
them. 

Such was the state of affairs when the battle of Fair 
Oaks came to put to a supreme trial the devotion and 
the resources of the commission. 

The first train of wounded arrived at White House in 
the night of May 31, after the battle of Seven Pines. 
Others followed without interruption, as fast as the 
railroad could bring them. There ensued, during two 
or three days, a frightful confusion, a heaping-up of 
suffering and misery, more hideous in its reality than 
Dante's hell in his imaginary circles. All the hospitals 
were overflowing with the sick, and it became necessary 
by every possible conveyance to place the unfortunate 
wounded at Yorktown and Fortress Monroe, while 
awaiting an opportunity to send them North. The 
steamers of the commission being far from sufficient, 
the quartermaster department furnished all the avail- 
able transportation it had ; but these vessels were with- 
out accommodations of any sort, and without any nurses 
to take care of the sick piled into them hurriedly, with- 
out order, without system, in the necessity of disposing 
of them in the quickest possible manner. Happy 
indeed were those whose good fortune it was to be 
sent aboard the vessels of the commission. There 
were eighteen hundred who there first received the 
needed relief. To appreciate the importance and 
extent of its services in these terrible circumstances, 



256 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

I cannot do better than to make a few extracts from its 
correspondence. 

"The commission transports," wrote one of the 
ladies in charge, " were loaded first, and departed with 
usual promptness and good order. Afterwards other 
vessels arrived, assigned by the government to the hos- 
pital service. These boats were not under the control 
of the commission. No one was there to take charge 
of them ; no one to receive the wounded at the landing, 
no one to properly put them on board, no one to see if 
the boat was provided with necessary supplies. As a 
matter of course, the commission did everything it 
could in the emergency ; but it was there without au- 
thority, and had no rights except those of charity. It 
could neither control nor stop the frightful confusion 
resulting from the arrival of trains, one after another, 
and the heaping-up of the wounded on board the 
different vessels. But it did all that could be done. 
Night and day, its members worked to make the best 
of untoward circumstances. Three, at least, of the 
government vessels were without a particle of food 
for the wounded passengers, — and, if there had been, 
there was not a pail or a utensil in which to distrib- 
ute it. 

" Our supply boat, the Elizabeth, arrived, and we 
went on board the Vanderbilt. May I never see again 
a similar scene to that of which I was a witness, and in 
the midst of which I have lived for two days. Men in 
a horrible condition, mutilated, shattered, crying, were 
brought in on litters by negroes, who unloaded them 
wherever they could, knocking against doors, against 
pillars, and treading without mercy on those who were 
stretched out in their way. Imagine a great steamer, 
whose every deck, every bed, every square inch is cov- 
ered with wounded, where everything, even to the stair- 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 257 

way of ladders, is covered with men less grievously 
wounded than the others, — and litters still coming on 
board, one after another, with the hope of finding some 
vacant corner. 

" It rained in torrents. Two transports were already 
full. We returned on shore, where the same thing was 
repeated, to embark one hundred and fifty wounded on 
board the Kennebec, except a few so dreadfully wounded 
that they could not be moved in the darkness of the 
night and under the rain, and who were, for the time 
being, left in the wagons. We distributed refresh- 
ments to all. — At daylight, we took some repose and 
at half-past six in the morning we were on the Daniel 
Webster No. 2. At noon, we had given breakfast 
to six hundred wounded, before having taken our 
own." 

We will now let Mr. Olmsted, the chief secretary 
of the commission, speak : — 

" In the afternoon of June 2, the wounded continued 
to arrive by all the trains without any assistance. They 
were loaded into the freight cars as closely as possible, 
without arrangement, without beds, without straw, a 
few having, at the most, a handful of hay under their 
heads. Many of the lightly wounded were brought 
along on the tops of the cars. They came in this way, 
dead and living mingled together in the same narrow 
box, numbers of them with horrible wounds full of mat- 
ter, swarming with worms. Remember that it was a 
summer day in Virginia, clear and calm. The stench 
was so strong that it caused vomiting even amongst our 
sturdy employes, accustomed to care for the sick. 

" Is it necessary to tell you that our ladies are always 
ready to hurry to these dreadful places, in torrents of 
rain, by the dim light of a lantern, at any hour of the 
night, carrying with them spirits and ice-water, bringing 



258 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

back to life those whose exhaustion alone made them 
despair, or receiving for a mother or wife the last words 
of the dying. 

" The trains of wounded and sick arrive at every hour 
of the night. As soon as the whistle is heard, Dr. 
Ware hurries to his place and the ladies are at their 
posts in their tents. The fires blaze under a row of 
saucepans, the lamps are lighted near savory provisions, 
piles of bread and cups of coffee. — Then come first in 
line those who are slightly wounded. In going on 
board the boat they stop before the tent and receive 
a cup of hot coffee, with as much condensed milk as 
they wish. Then comes the slow defiling of the litters, 
the unfortunate occupants of which are comforted with 
brandy, wine, or iced lemonade. A minute suffices to 
pour something into their throats, to thrust some 
oranges in their hands, to save them from exhaus- 
tion and thirst until a meal, prepared with care, can 
be served to them on board the vessel. Those who are 
to remain on shore are put under the" twenty Sibley 
tents set up by the commission along the railroad. 
There is where each one of our squad of five goes every 
night to feed from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 
wounded." 

A notable fact is that among these wounded were 
many Confederates, who were cared for the same as our 
own men, with the difference only that they were 
guarded as prisoners. They were not less surprised 
than grateful, their barbarous customs not having 
prepared them for the generosity arising from our 
civilization. 

So, thanks to the Sanitary Commission, order was 
in a few days restored to that chaos, the relief became 
equal to the demands made upon it, and the regular 
action of the service had succeeded to the utter dis- 



THE SANITARY COMMISSION. 259 

order resulting from an avalanche of suffering to be 
assuaged at once. 

This unhappy experience was not, however, without 
producing fortunate results. Important improvements 
were introduced into the organization of the medical 
department ; more efficient measures were taken to 
repair omissions, to fill up gaps, to provide against 
insufficiencies, and, finally, to prevent the return of 
such a catastrophe. In this branch, as in the others, 
the general administration of the army learned, in the 
hard lessons of experience, to follow the path of prog- 
ress. We must remember that the United States 
were not a military nation ; that for them everything 
was new in the organization, the maintenance, and the 
movements of great armies in a campaign, and we will 
be less surprised at the effects of their inexperience 
than at the promptness with which they caused them 
to disappear. 

I was welcomed on board the Wilson Small, the 
eighth day after the battle of Fair Oaks, and all 
traces of encumbrance had already disappeared from 
the hospitals. The transports of the commission car- 
ried away, in their regular turn, the patients committed 
to the care of a more numerous corps of assistants. 
The additional steamers again took their places in the 
quartermaster department, and the assisting ladies were 
able to take some rest, in the performance of their regu- 
lar duties, from the harassing fatigues undergone with 
the heroism of charitable devotion. During the even- 
ing of repose and comfort for which I am indebted to 
the care of those noble women, no one of them once 
thought of rehearsing to me those details which I have 
related in their honor. No more than these ladies did 
the other members of the commission appear to think 
they had done more than perform the simplest of duties. 



2 60 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

This war was fruitful in great sacrifices. Some gave 
their blood, others their wealth. And none the less 
deserving at the hands of the Republic were the lat- 
ter, who consecrated their efforts to the relief and com- 
fort of her defenders. 



I 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE. 

Contrasts — New York — The Newport steamer — Boston — Success of 
Stonewall Jackson — Stuart's raid — Return to Fortress Monroe — 
Interview with General Dix — Evacuaton of West Point — Arrival 
at Harrison's Landing — The work of McClellan — A characteristic 
despatch — Battle of Mechanicsville — of Gaines' Mill — of Savage 
Station — of White Oak Swamp — of Glendale — of Malvern Hill — 
The port of refuge. 

On the morning of June lo, I embarked with my fel- 
low-traveller on the mail steamer, which carried 
scarcely any but sick and wounded. The cabin re- 
served for officers had the sad look of an infirmary. 
No life, no animation. The passengers, stretched out 
in their blankets or their overcoats on the sofas or on 
the floor, exchanged few words. Those suffering the 
least, seated on chairs, appeared plunged in sleepy 
meditation. Each one thought silently of the hard 
realities of war, as it were, the scoriae soiled by the 
blood and grime of that volcano of which from afar we 
see but the fiery plume, — of the miseries endured, of 
friends dead, of present burdens, of the future uncertain- 
ties. All that could be read in those pale faces, in 
those languid looks, wherein the joyous reflections of 
life had given place to mournful shadows. But I said 
to myself : " Let but health come again and all this will 
be forgotten. In a month's time we shall nearly all be 
back at our posts, joyous as people who have awakened 
from an evil dream." 

In the afternoon we were at Fortress Monroe, in 
time to take the steamer to Baltimore, where we arrived 

261 



262 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

early the next morning". A breakfast to refresh us and 
we were off for New York by the railroad. 

How beautiful is all that country ! How rich and 
well cultivated ! I saw everywhere things to which on 
other occasions I had given no attention. Extensive 
farms where breathed abundant life, fields where the 
harvests ripened in the sun in full security ; herds of cat- 
tle peacefully grazed in the fertile meadows, and every- 
where the fences were standing undisturbed. No 
picket fires smoking along the edge of the woods ; no 
camps whitening the hillsides ; no heavy wagons jolt- 
ing along the roads ; no cannon, no stacks of arms, no 
soldiers. 

Good people standing joyfully on your doorsills, you 
who see from a distance the trains passing along the 
railroad, and you who ask what is the news from the 
seat of war, take care how you complain about an 
increase of taxes which may cut a little into your reve- 
nues. Rather thank Heaven that the tide of armed 
men has not taken its course across your fields. If it 
had so passed, of everything which now makes your 
happiness and your riches there would remain to-day 
nothing but ruins. 

New York presented its usual appearance, except, 
perhaps, a noticeable increase of mercantile activity 
and obtrusive luxury. The war had opened new 
sources of speculation, which had been pursued with 
more activity than conscience, and the newly enriched 
were in great haste to display to all eyes the material 
proofs of their good fortune. One would hardly have 
been conscious that there was a war, if it had not been 
for the presence in the street of so many sick and 
wounded in uniform. 

I stopped only one day in New York, long enough to 
convince my friends that I had not died of disease, 



THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE. 263 

been strangled by the guerillas, or poisoned by the 
farmers, as rumor had declared. I was not yet in con- 
dition to meet an assault of mothers, wives, sisters, and 
weeping lovers, who, without counting the male rela- 
tives or the friends of both sexes, would probably come 
to ask me for news as to the killed and wounded of the 
Fifty-fifth, in whom their hearts had a particular inter- 
est, and even about the well who had neglected to 
write after the battle of Fair Oaks. Strengthened 
already, by a diet quite different from that of the army, 
I hurried on to Boston by the Fall River Line. 

The fine equipment of this line of steamers is well 
known. The watering season was about to open, and 
promised to be brilliant. 

The steamer was filled with a fashionable crowd 
leaving the city to breathe the Atlantic air in their 
sumptuous villas, which have made the pretty port of 
Rhode Island the paradise of earth for summer days. 
There were on board horses, carriages, servants, and 
great trunks without number, reminding me of the 
modest valise, weighing thirty pounds, which the regu- 
lations allowed me in the army. 

All this fine world went and came, jested and laughed, 
and was interested in the war, as in an exciting novel, 
which is read in instalments. I was somewhat startled 
at the violent contrast between this superb steamer 
full of beautiful toilets, of refined elegance, of gay con- 
verse, in which a happy life was shown by a thousand 
joyous remarks, and that poor steamer where, but two 
days before, I was surrounded with soiled uniforms and 
pitiful wrecks of men, and where the suffering and pri- 
vations were shown by a mournful silence. Did I dream 
then, or do I dream now ? Neither the one nor the 
other. Such contrasts as these are continually occur- 
ring around us in reality, as much as, or more than, in 



264 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

fiction. Riches jostle misery, virtue vice, happiness 
adversity, and all the flowers of life open out to the 
sunlight upon some miry bank. 

I always liked Boston; — perhaps because I have 
never lived there, as unprejudiced Bostonians have as- 
sured me. If it is true that this great city has preserved 
many of the petty traditions and narrow ways of small 
villages, I can only say I have never perceived them. 
During the short sojourns which I have made there, at 
different times, I have always received a hospitable 
welcome and the most polite attention, which is gener- 
ally the case with strangers passing through. I have 
me#there men of great minds, celebrities learned and 
literary, great political characters, in the midst of a 
society truly distinguished and of a people deeply 
patriotic. On this occasion, I was going to find there, 
what I was in search of above all things, — health. 

How unjust the world is as regards the climate of 
Boston ! Under the pretext that it makes the men 
grumblers and the women nervous, there is nothing too 
bad to say about that good east wind, which blows from 
the Atlantic. But for a sick man, struck down by the 
heavy and poison-laden atmosphere of the Virginia 
Peninsula, it was like a breeze from Paradise. I shall 
never forget with what delight I drank in, with long 
inspirations, both physical and mental vigor, and how, 
each day, the friends who had welcomed me aided my 
convalescence by drives through the suburbs, the most 
charming, and inhabited by the most refined population, 
of any city in the world. 

The patriotic heart beat vigorously in modern Athens. 
It had not, as in some other cities of the North, been 
subjected to enthusiastic exaggerations or the reactions 
of discouragement. It had rather shown itself by a 
vigorous and persistent determination, whether in sue- 



THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE. 265 

cesses or in reverses. This was logical. No State of 
the North has, I believe, better understood and more 
determinedly accepted the necessity for the war than 
Massachusetts. It has been made a reproach to her 
that she had forwarded the strife, by the aggressive 
propaganda of her abolitionism ; but must the struggle 
of liberty against slavery remain forever in the domain 
of theory .'' Must it not come to the decisive trial by 
battle .'' By having stirred up the movement of minds, 
and hurried on the march of events towards the practi- 
cal solution of the problem, Massachusetts has simply 
added another glorious title to all those which she 
shared in common with the other free States of the 
Union. 

During the month of Jun'e, 1862, every one followed 
.with an uneasy eye the developments of the peninsular 
campaign, and it was already feared that the result 
might be unfortunate. Public opinion began to be 
suspicious of General McClellan ; the people prepared 
for new sacrifices, for which it foresaw the near neces- 
sity, without, however, being alarmed. 

Army news, in fact, was very discouraging. Jackson 
had had his own way in the Shenandoah valley, where 
our forces were scattered and unskilfully posted. He 
had beaten Banks at Winchester, and driven him rapidly 
back across the Potomac ; — he had repulsed Fremont 
at Cross Keys ; — he had badly handled Shields at 
Port Republic ; and, finally, had escaped uninjured from 
McDowell, and carried off a large booty, a great num- 
ber of prisoners, a quantity of arms, and several pieces 
of artillery. 

In addition, information came that General Stuart, with 
a force of fifteen hundred cavalry, had, with a success 
equal to its boldness, gone around the Army of the Poto- 
mac, cut the railroad, destroyed a great quantity of sup- 



266 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

plies, picked up a considerable number of prisoners, and 
returned to Richmond, witliout meeting with any one to 
bar his passage. If he did not destroy the depot at 
White House, it was because he did not attempt it, 
fearing to meet forces which were not there. Besides 
the damage to material, by this reconnoissance, he had 
learned all he wished to know in regard to the disposi- 
tion of our forces and the vulnerability of our line of 
supplies. 

It was very fortunate for me that I was no longer at 
Turner's. I would have shared the fate of my quarter- 
master, who was carried off from that neighborhood 
with twenty empty wagons. 

The good air and the life in Boston soon strengthened 
me so that I believed I wtls in condition to return to 
the army. This was not, however, the opinion of the 
physicians. But I had greater confidence in nature to 
fully restore me than they had. And, besides, — I must 
own it, — I was hurried by the fear of not arriving in 
time for the capture of Richmond. Alas ! how much 
further we were from it than I supposed, when on the 
29th, in the morning, the Baltimore steamer left me at 
Fortress Monroe. 

For two days they had been without news from the 
army. The latest information received was of a bloody 
battle on the right of our lines, at Mechanicsville, where 
the enemy had been repulsed on the 26th, with great 
loss. Since then, there had been only rumors and con- 
jectures, with no official report. The government was 
silent, and with good reason, — it heard nothing. The 
press was no better informed. This silence was inter- 
preted as inauspicious, every one thinking it to be the 
indication of some disaster. 

The first positive fact that I learned, on landing on 
the wharf, was the interruption of the daily communi- 



THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE. 267 

cation with White House, and the arrival of trans- 
ports since the night before indicated the precipitate 
evacuation of the depots and hospitals on the Pa- 
munkey. I hurried to the fort, where I was received 
by General Dix, whorp I had known personally for 
a long time. I presented to him my leave of ab- 
sence, which expired the next day, and asked him to 
furnish me with transportation to rejoin my regiment 
immediately. 

General Dix shook his head, and contented himself 
by replying, " It is impossible." 

I persisted in urging my request. 

" But, general," I replied, " I have been already only 
too long absent. If there is a battle going on at this 
time, it is only so much greater reason why I should 
rejoin my regiment without delay." 

" It is impossible," repeated the general, laconically, 
without replying to my remark. " The best I can do 
is to promise you an order for passage on the first boat 
sent to the army. In any event, that will not be before 
to-morrow." 

The general closed this short interview by an invi- 
tation to breakfast with his family and the principal 
officers of his staff. At the table, it seemed as though 
every one was preoccupied. The conversation was with- 
out life, and was limited to unimportant subjects. Not 
a word was said which bore upon what was passing on 
the Chickahominy. 

. On leaving the general's quarters, I stopped at the 
telegraph office to send to New York a simple message 
of a few words : " Arrived safely ; kept here to-day ; 
to-morrow with the army," and my signature. The 
employe politely returned me the paper. There was a 
formal order to send no message, no matter what, com- 
ing from a private source. Decidedly, something very 



268 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

grave must have happened ; but, still, what was it ? No 
one could tell me. 

It was Sunday. The hours passed slowly and heavily, 
when in the afternoon, returning to the landing, I saw 
the Wilson Small at anchor in the bay. There is my 
lodging-place for the night, I thought. I went imme- 
diately on board, where I learned, at last, something 
positive. The enemy had turned our right to the north 
of the Chickahominy, and beaten it, cut off our com- 
munication with our base of supplies, and thrown back 
the greater part of our army in retreat towards the 
James. On the 26th, an order had been received at 
White House, to evacuate the hospitals without losing 
an instant, to load everything on the transports for 
which room could be found, and to burn everything 
which must be left behind. This was promptly done. 
In two days, fifteen hundred sick, all the employes of 
the government, the garrison, and the greater part of 
the provisions were taken away. There was even found 
place on the forage barges for an exodus of negroes, 
men, women, and children, abandoning the land of 
slavery. The Wilson Small was the last to leave, 
lighted by the blaze which devoured everything that 
could not be brought away. 

The next morning, the 30th, I went to headquarters 
at an early hour. Not a despatch from the army, from 
which, evidently, nothing had been received for three 
days. Official reticence in this instance was not volun- 
tary, but forced. They said nothing because they knew 
nothing. Chance gave me that day a proof of this fact, 
as curious as it was irrefutable. 

Mr. B. of Philadelphia, who loved to devote his time 
and part of his income to different philanthropic objects, 
had just arrived at Fortress Monroe in search of infor- 
mation and of occasions to make himself useful. In the 



THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE. 269 

course of a private conversation, which our friendly- 
relations of several years justified, he showed me the 
following telegram, which he had just received and 
which I transcribe literally : " Is the enemy at White 
House ? And, if not, ivJierc is he ? " signed, Stantoi. 
The Secretary of War himself knew no more than 
anybody else. 

Two great steamers soon came up to the wharf 
reserved for the service of the fort, to take in coal. 
One was the Vanderbilt, which, having taken a load 
of sick from White House, was getting ready to ascend 
the James in order to visit the army wherever it might 
be. I received an order to go on board of her, but her 
departure was delayed until the next day morning, July 
I, in order to take on board the Eighteenth Massachu- 
setts, and the officers and soldiers on the way to rejoin 
their regiments. At sunrise we started for our uncer- 
tain destination. 

Silence and solitude reigned on both banks of the 
river. The presence of man was evidenced by ruins 
only. At Newport News the rigging of the sunken 
Cumberland appeared above the water in front of the 
abandoned camps. Farther on, the wharves were every- 
where burned, and occasionally a few brick walls, yet 
erect in the midst of the ruins, were the only indica- 
tion of inhabitants and of farms, formerly covered with 
harvests, to-day abandoned to weeds. Finally, about 
midday, near Harrison's Landing, we perceived the 
first signs of the Army of the Potomac. 

These were fires lighted along the river banks ; artil- 
lery wagons, whose white covers were visible through 
the curtain of trees ; drivers, with their teams worn out 
and covered with mud ; infantrymen of the escort, 
advance guard of cavalry, artillerymen without guns, 
soldiers without muskets, and those stragglers who, as 



270 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

they are always in the rear when the army is advancing, 
on the other hand are found in advance when the army 
is retreating. From them we learned that the army was 
near at hand, after seven days of fighting and seven 
nights of marching before an enemy eager in the pursuit. 

A small steam gunboat, near by, prevented our mount- 
ing the river any higher. At that very time, a battle 
was being fought on Malvern Hills, six or seven miles 
distant, which, in all probability, would decide the safety 
or destruction of the army. 

However, the number of arrivals increased hourly 
around the Harrison House. The field, with the har- 
vest half gathered, was soon covered with teams and 
overrun with bands of men marching, mingled with the 
trains. Some were sick or wounded, others separated 
from their regiments unwillingly. Many had left the 
ranks tired of fighting with no hope of victory, demor- 
alized by defeat, fatigue, and hunger. 

In the evening, the news was spread that the battle 
of Malvern Hills was gained ; that the enemy had been 
everywhere repulsed, and so badly treated that he had 
fallen back in disorder on his capital. But it did not 
appear that the victory, gained, had transformed us into 
pursuers instead of the pursued, for during the whole 
night retreat was continued from Malvern Hills to Har- 
rison's Landing. And what a retreat ! The rain, fall- 
ing in torrents, rendered the roads impracticable, and 
multiplied the obstacles to the moving of the trains and 
the artillery. The infantry, broken up by that last 
night of retreat succeeding a day of battle, was moving 
without order, men separated from their commands, 
regiments mingled together, brigades without connec- 
tion, divisions scattered everywhere and assembled no- 
where. And this after a victory ! What would it have 
been after a defeat .'' 



THE SEVEN DAYS BATTLE. 27 1 

Within the lines, where the army was about to in- 
trench itself, staff officers and mounted orderlies were 
posted at intervals, calling out in the obscurity : — " Such 
a division to the right ! — Such a division to the left ! " 
And the men belonging to the divisions named turned 
in the direction indicated, finding, further on, other offi- 
cers and horsemen calling out : — " Such a brigade this 
way ! — Siu:h a brigade that way ! " 

In this manner, little by little, the different corps 
were reassembled, and, after one night of frightful con- 
fusion, each was found on the following day in its 
proper place, in a position of defence against an attack, 
which fortunately did not take place. The two armies 
were equally exhausted, equally powerless to undertake 
anything ; both out of provisions and short of ammu- 
nition. Arrived near Harrison's Landing, the Confed- 
erates stopped only long enough to take breath, and 
then quickly returned to Richmond. 

And the grand Army of the Potomac was stranded on 
the banks of the James River, fainting, exhausted by 
its efforts, reduced by sickness yet more than by fire 
and steel ; — an inert mass of men, heaped together in 
a narrow space, where they had henceforth only to 
ruminate on their deceived hopes and their devotion 
without result, while waiting the final abandonment of 
the Peninsula. 

The overthrow of the Seven Days was the logical 
sequel to that sad campaign, which will bear eternal 
witness against the military incapacity, the political 
blindness, and the deficiencies of all kinds of General 
McClelkn. In that series of adversities, nothing could 
be attributed to chance, nothing to any one of those 
fortuitous circumstances which may defeat the best 
combined plans, — nothing to such a disproportion of 
forces as must necessarily overbear resistance. The 



272 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

general-in-chief alone is and will forever remain re- 
sponsible for the reverses. 

We ought to have been victorious. Any general of 
ordinary capacity, in command of the army, would 
have led us into Richmond, and the anniversary of 
national independence would have been celebrated in 
the rebel capital, conquered by our arms. To that end, 
what was necessary .'' To profit by our advantages for 
acting promptly and with vigor ; to attack the enemy 
resolutely, to overwhelm him by our numerical superi- 
ority, to follow him up untiringly, sword in hand ; and 
we would not have been compelled to thrust the sword 
to the hilt, to drive out his government, which, at the 
mere news of our victory at Williamsburg, had already 
begun to make preparations to move. But McClellan 
had neither vigor nor readiness. In his timid brain, 
haunted by phantoms, our advantages were transformed 
into disadvantages. His troubled eye never saw the 
enemy except with fantastic exaggerations, nor his own 
army except as largely reduced in numbers. Far 
from attacking, he did not know even how to defend 
himself. 

In place of overwhelming the enemy, he fought him 
only with isolated corps, and when, in spite of every- 
thing, at Fair Oaks, as at Williamsburg, the tenacity 
of some of the generals and the obstinate valor of our 
soldiers had wrested victory from the hands of the 
Confederates, and turned the tide of battle against 
them, he finally did appear on the field of battle ; it was 
when there was no danger, and then only to render 
the victory sterile by stopping the pursuit, and reim- 
prisoning, in the fever-laden swamps, the army of 
which he had made himself the gravedigger-in-chief. 

From the very opening of the campaign, this cow- 
ardly spirit was a prey to a persistent hallucination, 



THE SEVEN DAYS BATTLE, 273 

which always and everywhere made the enemy appear 
to him as greatly superior in force, even on the banks 
of the Warwick, where we were eight to one. Under 
this imaginary impression, he never ceased to ask a 
cor et a cri for reenforcements, without which, he 
said, he could do nothing. From the month of April 
it was the corps of McDowell which was indispensable 
to enable him to take Yorktown. Then he would 
content himself with the two divisions of Franklin and 
McCall. At the end, Yorktown was taken without 
the aid of Franklin or McCall. 

The President did not like to strip Washington of 
the troops left for its protection. Wanting military 
experience, he endeavored to take good-sense for 
his guide, refusing to leave the capital exposed with- 
out defence to the first coup de main of the Con- 
federates, to satisfy the timorous fantasies of a general 
in whom he could have but limited confidence. There- 
upon McClellan broke out in puerile complaints and 
pitiful insistence. Reenforcements were sent to him, 
but as soon as they arrived he demanded more. After 
the arrival of Franklin and his division on the last of 
April, he had in the fore part of June the whole corps 
of troops at Fortress Monroe, under the command of 
General Wool. After that he announced that he 
required nothing more, except the arrival of McCall, 
to take Richmond. McCall arrived on the nth of 
June. Then there was something else. The Chicka- 
hominy had overflowed its banks. When it had re- 
turned to its bed, the roads were still too bad for artil- 
lery ; but finally the general-in-chief asked for nothing 
more " only a little fine weather in order to report 
progress," The fine weather dried up the roads ; what 
will he contrive now to excuse further delay } He 
wishes to know whether McDowell will come from 



2 74 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Fredericksburg by land or by water, and in what rela- 
tion of subordination. " Meanwhile," he added, " I 
shall be very glad to receive all the troops which can 
be sent to me." 

At last, on the i8th of June he is ready : " A general 
engagement may take place at any moment," he writes. 
" An advance movement on our part is a battle more 
or less decisive. The enemy shows himself ready to 
receive* us everywhere. He has certainly a very large 
force and extensive works. After to-morrow we will 
fight the rebel army as soon as Providence will permit. 
We have nothing more to wait for but a favorable con- 
"dition of earth and of sky, and the finishing of a few 
indispensable preliminaries." 

Well, Providence is favorable, the condition of ground 
and weather all that can be asked ; the indispensable 
preliminaries are disposed of. He has received nearly 
forty thousand reenforcements, thirty-three thousand 
of whom in the ranks bring the number of our effec- 
tive force up to a hundred and fifteen thousand, making 
deduction for the sick and absent. Finally he learns 
that the defence of Richmond has been weakened by 
at least twelve thousand men sent to reenforce Jack- 
son. Now or never is the time to strike the great blow 
so long promised, which will destroy the head of the 
rebellion. But no ; McClellan is not one of those who 
dare to strike blows. He will wait for them. He has 
resigned himself to this, when, on the 24th, a deserter 
informs him that Jackson, reenforced, is advancing 
from Gordonsville with the intention of attacking our 
right, on the 28th, and trying to take us in the rear. 

McClellan had four days before him. He knew 
whence the attack was to come. Consequently he 
could take his measures accordingly, and confound all 
the calculations of the enemy by concentrating his 



THE SEVEN DAYS BATTLE. 275 

whole army on either one or the other bank of the 
Chickahominy. On the north side he could first crush 
Jackson, and then return and finish Lee, if he had fol- 
lowed up the movement. On the south side he could do 
better still ; overwhelm Magruder and follow him into 
Richmond before Lee and Jackson could find out that 
they had lost the substance for the shadow. But 
McClellan did neither the one nor the other. Unde- 
cided, irresolute, as incapable of forming a new plan as 
of executing it in the face of dangers which paralyzed 
him, he could -only leave matters as they were. And, 
as at Seven Pines he had given over his left isolated, 
now at Gaines' Mill he leaves his right to receive the 
attack without support. 

He is beaten before the battle is fought. He fore- 
sees only defeat ; he dreams only of the excuses 
necessary to throw *the responsibility on some one 
else ; and, on the 25th, he addressed to Mr. Stanton, 
Secretary of War, that despatch, inspired by fear and 
dictated by a troubled conscience, which succeeded 
neither in deceiving himself nor in deceiving others : — 

" I have just returned from our line, and find your 
despatch in regard to Jackson. Several contrabands, 
just arrived, confirm by their information the supposi- 
tion that Jackson's advance is at Hanover Court House, 
or in that vicinity, and that Beauregard arrived at 
Richmond yesterday with considerable reenforcements- 
I think Jackson will attack my right and rear. The 
rebel forces are estimated at two hundred thousand 
men, including Jackson and Beauregard. I must fight 
against vastly superior forces, if these reports are true ; 
but this army will do everything that is humanly possi- 
ble to maintain its position and repel every attack. I 
regret my great inferiority in numbers ; but I feel that 
I am in no way responsible for it, not having failed to 



276 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

represent on numerous occasions the necessity for 
reenforcements ; that this was the decisive point ; and 
that the whole available resources of the government 
should be concentrated here. 

" I will do all that a general can do with the magnifi- 
cent army which I have the honor to command, and, if 
it is destroyed by an overwhelming superiority of num- 
bers, I can at least die with it and share its fortunes. 
But, if the result of the action, which will probably 
take place to-morrow or very shortly after, is a disaster, 
the responsibility cannot be thrown on my shoulders. 
It must rest where it belongs." 

And he finished by returning to his fixed idea : " I 
feel that it is useless to again demand reenforcements," 
Thus the general-in-chief devoted his army in ad- 
vance to destruction, or at least to an irremediable dis- 
aster. Not having found any Jilan to escape it, but 
with his head full of terrifying fantasies, he held himself 
ready to depart at the first firing of the cannon, and 
precede in the retreat those whom he abandoned in 
danger. 

Since the battle of Fair Oaks the Second Corps 
(Sumner) had remained on the right bank of the Chick- 
ahominy, where it had been followed in the month of 
June by the Sixth Corps (Franklin), So that only the 
Fifth Corps (Porter) remained on the left bank, re- 
cently reenforced by McCall's division. All the efforts 
of the enemy were made there, and there the great 
seven days' contest commenced. 

On the 26th of June, A. P. Hill, preceding Jackson 
by twenty-four hours, endeavored to force the passage 
of Beaver Dam Creek, defended by the Pennsylvanians 
under McCall. He was repulsed with considerable loss 
on the Mechanicsville road. But, during the night, 
Porter was compelled to fall back to a position more 



THE SEVEN DAYS BATTLE. 277 

tenable against a force become much superior to his 
own, Jackson and Longstreet having united against his 
lines. On the 27th, then, the Fifth Corps, with about 
twenty-five thousand men, was assailed by seventy 
thousand Confederates on Gaines' Mill Heights, and 
defended itself there obstinately, until our own cavalry 
came fatally to the enemy's aid. Unskilfully handled 
and roughly repulsed, it fell back in disorder on our 
lines, where it put everything into confusion, artil- 
lery and infantry. The Confederates, coming on at the 
charge, finished the overthrow, and the Fifth Corps 
would have been destroyed if the coming of the night 
had not enabled our decimated troops to cross to the 
right bank of the Chickahominy, destroying the bridges 
behind them. 

It cannot but be remarked that these same troops, 
which rejoined the main body of the army, worn out 
and cruelly maltreated by a contest so disproportioned, 
might have been rallied, without loss or fatigue, from 
the advanced position which it was known beforehand 
that they could not hold. In that case, their move- 
ment would have been the signal for a brilliant 
advance. Now, it was only the signal for a disastrous 
retreat. It is deplorable for General McClellan that 
he is thus found always playing the enemy's game, and 
doing everything the most effectual for their safety and 
our ruin that his adversaries could have suggested. 

As soon as Porter had crossed safely on the 28th, 
the general retreat commenced. Keyes crossed White 
Oak swamp first, and took position to protect the pas- 
sage of the immense army trains and the great herds 
of cattle. Then, on the 29th, after having repulsed a 
cavalry attack, he continued his way towards the James, 
where he arrived on the 30th, at the same time that 
Porter reached Haxall's Landing. Much less favored, 



278 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the three other corps suspended their march only to 
fight and ceased to fight only to march. But all this 
was done without any general system, in the absence 
of superior supervision, and of orders in accordance 
with circumstances. 

On the 29th the enemy crossed the Chickahominy 
to unite all his force on the right bank ; Franklin 
advised Sumner, and the two, acting together, fell back 
on Savage Station, where they took up position, with 
the intention, aided by Heintzelman, of repelling the 
dangerous attack which menaced them. But Heint- 
zelman, adhering to his general instructions, after 
destroying the material of the railroad, the provisions, 
munitions of war, arms and baggage that there was 
neither time nor means of carrying away, hastened to 
cross White Oak swamp, uncovering Sumner's left. 
The latter learned of the retreat of the Third Corps 
only from a furious attack by the enemy on the very 
side which he believed protected by Heintzelman, He 
did not the less sustain the shock with an unshakable 
solidity, and fought all the afternoon with four divis- 
ions without being broken at any point. The enemy, 
worn out by the useless attacks, retired at nightfall. 
Then only did he receive any news from McClellan, 
under the form of an order to Sumner, to fall back 
along with Franklin, to the other side of White Oak 
swamp, abandoning our general hospitals at Savage 
Station, and the twenty-five hundred sick and wounded 
in them. 

On the morning of the 30th, Jackson presented 
himself, to cross the swamp after us. He found the 
bridge destroyed, and endeavored to force a passage at 
several points. He was everywhere repulsed and kept 
in check the whole day by the obstinate resistance of 
Franklin, while farther on, towards the James, Long- 



THE SEVEN DAYS BATTLE. 279 

Street was held by Heintzelman and McCall, who pre- 
vented him from cutting our army in two at Glendale. 

This was not done without hard fighting. The Con- 
federates, arriving by the New Market road at a right 
angle to the Quaker road, which was our line of march, 
struck, in the first place, the Pennsylvanian reserves, 
broke their line, outflanking it on the right and on the 
left, captured a battery of artillery, and pushed reso- 
lutely on through that dangerous breach. They then 
struck Hooker's division, which threw them obliquely 
on Sumner's Corps. Soon afterward, Kearney occu- 
pied the vacant space, and, as on the evening before, 
the sun set with the rebels unsuccessful. 

But, the same evening, Franklin, left without orders, 
and seeing his position was becoming more and more 
dangerous, abandoned White Oak swamp and fell back 
towards the James. At that news, which was prompt- 
ly sent to him from several directions, Heintzelman 
sent in vain to headquarters, to ask for instructions. 
Left to his own devices, he concluded that the wisest 
course was to follow the retrograde movement, and 
retreated with his corps. 

Sumner still remained, and, seeing himself left alone 
and without support, he decided, in his turn, to do as 
the others had done. On the morning of the 31st, 
he arrived on the Malvern Heights, where the three 
corps, the Second, Third, and Sixth, found themselves 
united, not, as has been benevolently said, by the wise 
combinations of General McClellan, but by the fortu- 
nate inspiration of the commanders, who had received 
no orders to that effect. "At daylight," said General 
Sumner, in his testimony before the Congressional 
committee, " I called on General McClellan, on the 
banks of the James. He told vie that he had intended 
that the army should hold the position it had the night 



28o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

before, and that no order for retreat had been sent ; but 
that, since the rest of the army had fallen back, he was 
glad that I had done the same." 

It was found that the plateau of Malvern Hill was 
admirably formed for a defensive position. General 
Humphreys, of the corps of topographical engineers, 
was ordered to examine the position, and he traced a 
formidable line with the left resting at Haxall's Land- 
ing on the James, where it was protected by the gun- 
boats, while the right was thrown back on some fields 
covered with thick woods, and cut up by marshy 
streams. The summits and slopes of the plateau were 
bristling with cannon, sweeping the plain over the 
heads of our infantry deployed in front of them. In 
that position, the army awaited a last attack. 

The enemy played there his last card, and lost the 
game. It was perhaps imprudent, but he had been vic- 
torious at Gaines' Mill, and since then, although repulsed 
with loss at Savage Station, at White Oak swamp, and 
at Glendale, after each of these engagements he had 
taken up his march in advance, as we had resumed our 
march in retreat. Whatever might be the material 
losses on either side, the moral effect remained in their 
favor, for in that sad week our men, falling back after 
every fight, believed themselves always defeated, even 
when they were the victors ; and they were proportion- 
ally demoralized. For the same reason, the Confed- 
erates, convinced that they had beaten us constantly 
since the 26th, pursued us with the vigorous and confi- 
dent spirit which is given by victory. 

And, really, was it not a victory for them } What if 
they had been repulsed at Savage Station and at Glen- 
dale, and stopped at White Oak swamp } what was it but 
a delay of a few hours .'' And, if their losses had been 
greater than ours, was not the difference in the loss in 



THE SEVEN DAYS BATTLE. 251 

dead and wounded more than compensated, in a reverse 
sense, by the moral condition of the survivors ? To tell 
the fact, our advantages during the last days were lim- 
ited to saving our transportation, by giving it time to 
take the advance. But when General Lee led his whole 
force against the Malvern Heights it was a victorious 
though diminished army which he hurled to the attack, 
to give the coup dc grace to the army of McClellan, — 
of McClellan, who, at that very time, had retired on 
board the gunboat Galena. 

Lee had to hasten. Every step forward took him 
further from his supplies, and brought us nearer ours. 
Behind us, the roads, broken up, became more and more 
impracticable, the difficulties became greater from hour 
to hour. Such being the case, Lee did not have time 
to wait until his adversary evacuated his present posi- 
tion, in order to try and force his lines in some other, 
which might not perhaps offer any better opportunity 
for attack. He tried his fortune and gave battle July i. 
On every point his columns were thrown back in dis- 
order, crushed in every attack by the double fire of ar- 
tillery and infantry. Dash was not enough now. On 
this occasion, the enemy was compelled to acknowledge 
himself beaten and incapable of pursuing us any fur- 
ther. 

But our men were slow to believe in success. On 
receiving the order, a few hours later, after night had 
put an end to the contest, to retire to Harrison's Land- 
ing, they naturally concluded that we were not strong 
enough to hold out long against the enemy, and that, 
while Couch and Porter had victoriously held their lines 
unbroken, some ill fortune must have come upon us at 
another point, compromising our position, and thus 
compelling us to a precipitate retreat. Worn out by fa- 
tigue and fighting, exhausted by privations and by vigils, 



282 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

discouraged, and suspecting that it was not fortune 
alone that had betrayed them, they dragged themselves 
along, without order, towards the designated point, dur- 
ing that last night march, which had all the character 
of a rout. 

The next day, at last, they were able to take some 
rest, and understand that the end of their trials and 
immediate dangers had arrived, seeing that their gen- 
eral had stopped with them. His headquarters were 
established at Harrison's plantation, on the banks of 
the James, and under the cannon of the gunboats. 

It was there that, like a shipwrecked crew, this army 
rallied, after securing its own safety in spite of every- 
thing, — fighting with equal firmness, both against men 
and against circumstances, and not allowing itself to be 
destroyed by Robert E. Lee, nor by George B. Mc- 
Clellan. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 

Miserable condition of the army — Desertions — Military bravado and 
political manifesto of McClellan — Reconnoissances — Order to evac- 
uate the Peninsula — Delay after delay — Pope on the Rappahannock 
— Delay at Alexandria — Night march — Fairfax Court House — 
Death of Kearney — Retreat on Washington — Pope and McClellan. 

The Vanderbilt, which had brought me on the ist of 
July to Harrison's Landing, took me back, on the 
second day after, to Fortress Monroe, in company with 
six hundred and fifty wounded. Bad weather and poor 
food had proved the doctors right, and brought on a 
relapse, which put me in a condition unfit to be disem- 
barked. It was not until a week later, July lo, that 
I could resume command of my regiment, reduced then 
to less than four hundred men. The remainder, except 
a few deserters, were sleeping upon four fields of battle, 
shut up in the Richmond prisons, or lying in the hos- 
pitals. 

Officers and soldiers were in a sad plight. The 
greater part without tents, many without blankets, 
some almost without uniforms. And they had been 
in that condition since the battle of Fair Oaks, where, 
as will be recollected, the camp of the Fifty-fifth, and 
everything it contained, was lost. Through one cause 
or another the loss had not been made good. The little 
that the men now possessed they had picked up here 
and there during the fights or on the march. They 
were the spoils of the dead and wounded. The ofiicers 
were no better provided for ; their baggage had been 

283 



284 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

burnt at Savage Station, in consequence of an order, 
given too hurriedly, by an inexperienced quarter- 
master. 

Happily for me, the lieutenant-colonel had procured 
an old, worn-out tent, which I could occupy with him 
while awaiting something better, — a wretched shelter, 
under which I heard the relation of the sufferings 
endured, the perils braved, the privations undergone, 
during the terrible seven days. 

Now, our pressing need was to recruit physically and 
morally. The first was easier than the last. In the 
repose which we enjoyed under the protection of our 
retrenchments, the necessary material soon arrived, and 
the regiment could be newly fitted out in a few days. 
But the morale of soldiers is not restored with the put- 
ting-on of new uniforms, and that of the army was terri- 
bly shattered ; — so much so that, on arriving at Harri- 
son's Landing, favored by the universal confusion, 
desertions took place by thousands amongst the men, 
and by hundreds amongst the subaltern officers. To 
such an extent did the disorganization reign in the dif- 
ferent branches of the service that deserters had been 
able to go on board the transports with the sick and 
wounded, and thus abandon the army. 

In a letter to General McClellan, dated July 13, the 
President, with the reports in his hands, showed the 
unexplained absence of forty-five thousand men from 
the Army of the Potomac. Now, the official reports of 
July 20 bring the total number up to 158,314, and the 
loss during the fatal retreat was 15,249. On the 8th 
of July, when Mr. Lincoln himself came to visit the 
army, but eighty-six thousand could be shown to him 
under arms. 

In his reply, General McClellan alleged that 38,250 
men had received temporary furloughs. The number 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 285 

still left to be accounted for by desertion is very large, 
as will be seen. But it seems impossible not to ask the 
question, how the general-in-chief could authorize such 
an enormous number of furloughs at the very time that 
he was complaining of the want of troops. For if he had, 
before the late reverses, asked and asked again to satiety 
for reenforcements, it may well be believed that he did 
not change his cry after having been driven back some 
twenty miles. The day after the battle of Malvern 
Hills he had asked for fifty thousand men, that is to 
say, all who remained to cover the capital. The day 
after, we are told, he asked for a hundred thousand 
men, rather for more than less, " to take Richmond." 

Take Richmond with an army commanded by Gen- 
eral McClellan ? There was no one who did not know 
what interpretation to put upon this cruel pleasantry. 
So that, when the general-in-chief thought it necessary 
to issue, from Harrison's Landing, an order of the day, 
in which he notified the enemy that before long he was 
going to take his capital, no one could help shrugging 
his shoulders at such ridiculous gasconade. The 
American soldier is too intelligent to be influenced by 
high-sounding but empty words. He judges things 
from the facts, and not by the false colors under which 
they may be presented to him. 

McClellan understood it, probably, from the effect 
produced in the army by his bravado, and from the 
impression made throughout the country by his deplo- 
rable campaign. One is compelled to believe that he 
wished to create a diversion, and escape a part, at least, 
of his military responsibility, by evoking the political 
passions. 

On July 7, — five days after his arrival at Harrison's 
Landing, — he wrote to the President of the Republic 
a letter in which he undertook, disregarding alike both 



2 86 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

propriety and courtesy, to dictate to him the course of 
policy which the government ought to pursue. In this 
letter he declared that in no case should the war be 
carried on with the object of subjugating the people of 
any State; — that neither the confiscation of property, 
nor political executions, nor the territorial organization 
of a State, nox forced abolition of slavery should be for 
an instant thought of. That the military power should 
not be permitted to interfere in the relations of servi- 
tude, whether for or against the authority of the master, 
except to repress all disorders, as in every other case ; 
— that, on appropriating in any permanent manner the 
labor of the slave, the government must recognize the 
right of the master to an indemnity; — that the decla- 
ration of radical views, especially in reference to slavery, 
would rapidly disorganize our armies. Finally, to give 
effect to this political manifesto, General McClellan 
recommended to the President to appoint a generalis- 
simo, who possessed his confidence, to execute his 
orders. That is to say that, without positively asking 
that position for himself, he offered himself virtually to 
conduct the war against the rebellion, being careful in 
all ways of injuring the rebels, and, above all, protect- 
ing for them the institution of slavery, the direct cause 
of the conflict, the incontestable source of the present 
ills, but for him the holy ark which it was not permitted 
to touch. 

This manifesto gives the key to the ideas and con- 
duct of the general, his hesitations, his slowness, his 
tender regard for the enemy, and perhaps to some 
awkward things, until then inexplicable. It was, in any 
case, a direct appeal to the party suspected of sympathy 
with the rebellion, an appeal which encouraged its op- 
position to the policy of the government, becoming daily 
more and more pronounced. In this letter was already 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 287 

made manifest the policy of compromise adopted at a 
later day by the Democratic convention at Chicago. 

In this instance, the President was wanting in deci- 
sion. The moment was opportune to retire from the 
command of the Army of the Potomac a general who, 
as a soldier, had caused the campaign to fail from his 
incompetence, and in political matters had separated 
himself so pointedly from the line of conduct marked 
out by Congress and adopted by the government. But 
whether the administration recoiled from an open rup- 
ture with the Democratic party, or whether it did not 
feel itself sufficiently clear as to the merits of the gen- 
erals to designate the one most worthy of succession 
to a position so important, matters were left as they 
were. Only the isolated corps of McDowell, Banks, 
and Fremont were united and put under one command, 
that of General Pope, in order to protect Washington 
more effectually. 

Our situation at Harrison's Landing was neither 
pleasant nor encouraging. We found ourselves in a 
position from which we could not withdraw except 
backwards. Alone, we could attempt nothing against 
Richmond of any avail, and our junction with Pope's 
army, which covered Washington from its position at 
Culpeper Court House, had become impracticable since 
we had been thrown back to the banks of the James. 
We waited passively the solution of the questions which 
were discussed between headquarters and the govern- 
ment. 

It was a painful waiting of more than a month. We 
were crowded together behind our intrenchments, 
where the want of room was as prejudicial to the clean- 
liness as to the well-being of the soldier. Our camps 
were unhealthy. The water was of bad quality. The 
frightful heat of the month of July was scarcely tem- 



288 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

pered by the dreadful storms which came upon us so 
often in the afternoon. If the skies remained clear, a 
torrid sun cracked the earth in every direction, and from 
the openings exhaled fever-laden miasmas. In spite of 
the care taken to bury each day the animal matter of 
all kinds, an unhealthy odor infected the air around the 
tents, too thickly placed, and in which the heat, the 
vermin, and the flies left very little repose to the 
soldier. These flies are a veritable plague. They mul- 
tiplied to an infinite extent, and their sharp stings tor- 
mented the men and covered the horses, who were 
powerless to defend themselves. Night alone brought 
any relief from their persecutions. 

Such was our condition at Harrison's Landing. The 
enemy left us alone, without troubling himself to dis- 
turb us in our inoffensive idleness. He was preparing 
for more important operations. Once only, on the ist 
of August, between midnight and one o'clock in the 
morning, he opened an unexpected cannonade on our 
transports. To this end he had sent a few batteries on 
the right bank of the James ; but they were promptly 
reduced to silence, and retired at daylight without 
doing us any particular damage. Coggin's Point, of 
which they had made use, was occupied by our troops 
and fortified, and the enemy did not trouble us from 
that point any more. 

On the 5th of August, Hooker made a reconnoissance 
towards Malvern Hill. He encountered nobody, and 
returned as he had gone. 

On the 6th it was our time to march out to Haxall's 
Landing. After the battle of Fair Oaks, General Peck 
had been promoted to the command of a division, and 
had been replaced in the command of the brigade by a 
captain of artillery, promoted to brigadier-general in 
the volunteer service. So that General Albion P. 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 289 

Howe was more familiar with the command of a bat- 
tery than with the infantry service. This was well 
exemplified at the time. Departing at sundown, the 
brigade did not reach Haxall's Farm until one o'clock in 
the morning. The distance is three or four miles, and 
could easily have been made in less than two hours. 
But wandering around in different paths, under the 
brilliant light of the moon, the general did not appear 
to think that men should have, now and then, a few 
minutes of rest. Thus, from not having regard to the 
fatigue of his men, he left behind him a large number 
of stragglers, and reached his goal with a command 
reduced by a third, and so tired that if we had met the 
enemy we were in a condition not at all favorable for 
an attack, or even for properly defending ourselves. 
Happily, Haxall's was abandoned, as was Malvern Hill, 
and, after a day spent in manoeuvres, poorly conceived 
in case of an attack, the division returned the following 
night, this time by the straight road, and without hav- 
ing burned a grain of powder. 

On the second day after, August 10, the first order 
for departure arrived. The hospitals were vacated and 
the baggage shipped on the transports, even the knap- 
sacks, leaving the soldiers only their arms, their blank- 
ets, and their haversacks. The heavy artillery was also 
embarked. All that took several days, during which 
the army, from universal joy, appeared to be trans- 
formed. We were at last about to leave that odious 
peninsula, where we had found only reverses and false 
hopes. We would, without doubt, leave there the bad 
fortune against which we had fought, and matters 
would take a more favorable turn for us on new battle- 
fields. Bonfires were made of everything combustible 
which we did not wish to take with us. Joy shone on 
all faces ; the morale became higher in every heart. It 



290 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

would not have been well for the enemy to try to bar 
our retreat. We would have passed over him with an 
irresistible force. 

But the enemy had no such idea. His eyes were 
fixed on another point, and his efforts were turned in 
another direction, to crush Pope before we had time to 
come to his aid. This was precisely what the govern- 
ment at Washington, as well as General Halleck, — 
recently called to the command-in-chief of the armies, 
— and the greater part of the corps commanders of the 
Army of the Potomac, had foreseen. The latter had so 
expressed themselves in July, when the President and 
afterwards General Halleck had visited the army. 

The project of evacuating the Peninsula dated from 
the President's visit on July 8, and since then General 
McClellan had not ceased to oppose it in every way 
and under all possible pretexts. It was the better to 
inform himself of the value of that opposition that, on 
July 25, General Halleck had made his visit to Harri- 
son's Landing. There he was able to see for himself the 
real condition of the army, to get direct information 
and the opinions of the generals, a majority of whom 
advised the immediate evacuation of the Peninsula. 
He returned to Washington fully satisfied of the neces- 
sity of that measure, and on the 30th addressed to 
McClellan the order to send away promptly all his 
sick, in order to break camp. On the 2d of August he 
had received no reply. A new order was given, con- 
firming the first. On the 3d McClellan replies that he 
cannot decide which of the sick to send away until he 
knows what the army is to do. Immediately he is 
informed that the army is to be transported from the 
Peninsula to Acquia Creek. On the 4th, instead of 
obeying, he protests vigorously against the order given, 
and asks that it may be withdrawn. On the same day 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 29 1 

came a third order to General McClellan, to hasten the 
departure of the sick, without waiting for a communi- 
cation as to what were or were not the intentions of the 
government relative to future operations. 

The reasons for that determination are very clearly 
expressed in a despatch of General Halleck, dated 
August 6. 

"... In our last interview," he writes to General 
McClellan, " you and your officers estimated the forces 
of the enemy around Richmond at two hundred thou- 
sand men. Since that time, you and the others report 
that these forces have received, and are yet receiving, 
considerable reenforcements from the South. General 
Pope's army, covering Washington, is only about forty 
thousand strong. Your effective force does not exceed 
ninety thousand. You are thirty miles from Rich- 
mond, and General Pope eighty or ninety, ivith the 
enemy directly between yon, ready with his snperior 
force to fall on one or the other of yon as he may elect. 
In such an event neither of you can reenforce the 
other. 

" If General Pope's army were diminished, to reen- 
force you, Washington, Maryland, and Pennsylvania 
would be left uncovered and exposed. If your forces 
were reduced to reenforce Pope, you would become too 
feeble even to maintain the position you now occupy, if 
the enemy should turn against you, and attack you with 
all his force. 

"In other words, the old Army of the Potomac is 
divided into two parts, with the enemy directly between 
them. They cannot be united by land without expos- 
ing both to destruction, and yet they must be united. 
To send Pope's army by water to the Peninsula is, 
under present circumstances, a military impossibility. 
The only alternative left is to send the forces now 



292 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

on the Peninsula to some point by water, say Fredericks- 
burg, where the two armies can be united." 

In opposition to these decisive reasons, the theory of 
General McClellan amounted simply to this : That 
Washington was best protected by a menace against 
Richmond ; that, consequently, all the disposable troops 
around the capital and elsewhere should be sent to the 
army, to enable it to take the offensive, and to recom- 
mence its operations against Richmond. This was 
untenable, in the present state of affairs. For, taking 
his own figures, if it were true that the Confederates 
had more than two hundred thousand men, half of them 
were enough to hold in check McClellan and Pope 
united on the Peninsula, while with the other half they 
had only to march directly on Washington, left without 
protection, and take possession without striking a blow ; 
which they certainly would not have failed to do. 

At last, General ]\IcClellan, constrained to obey, re- 
signed himself to it with very bad grace and very 
slowly. On August 7, eight days after the reception 
of the first order, he had embarked less than four 
thousand sick, and there were still six thousand in the 
hospitals. In vain, from the 9th, General Halleck 
telegraphed to him that the enemy was massing his 
troops in front of Pope to crush him and march on 
Washington. McClellan replied tranquilly that he 
would put his army in motion as soon as he had sent 
off his sick. In vain, on the next day, the lOth of 
August, General Halleck informed him that the enemy 
had crossed the Rapidan in considerable force, and 
attacked Banks at Cedar Mountain. It was not until 
the 14th that our first division was put in motion, and 
not until the 23d did McClellan embark for Acquia 
Creek, where he arrived on the 24th. 

Now, during these fatal delays, after the iSth, Pope, 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 293 

having on his hands the mass of the Confederate 
forces, had been compelled to fall back behind the 
Rappahannock, where, while he was holding out against 
Lee, Jackson turned his right, by a great flank move- 
ment, and took position in his rear at Bristoe Station, 
on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, thus cutting off 
his communication with Washington. 

At this critical time, the corps of Porter and Heint- 
zelman, arrived at last from the Peninsula, came into 
line. The annihilation of Jackson should have ensued 
from their cooperation in the dangerous position where 
he had risked himself. The latter, nevertheless, suc- 
ceeded in rejoining Lee, and then commenced a series 
of desperate contests, in which Pope, overwhelmed by 
numbers, found himself, in spite of partial advantages, 
thrown back to Manassas, and finally beaten in a last 
battle, at the same place where fortune had before been 
so adverse to us. 

While these things were happening in the north of 
Virginia, that is to say, from the 20th to the 30th of 
August, the Fourth Corps remained camped between 
Yorktown and Fortress Monroe, waiting its turn to 
embark, which never came. Leaving Harrison's Land- 
ing on the morning of the 6th, we had arrived by short 
stages on the banks of the York River, where we en- 
camped on the 20th. It was not until after nine days 
of waiting that Couch's division alone received orders 
to proceed to Alexandria. Peck's division was sent 
later on to North Carolina, whence Burnside's corps 
had been recalled, and General Keyes remained at 
Yorktown with but one division. The Fourth Corps 
henceforth did not exist. 

Transports were sent to take us. The Fifty-fifth 
and the Sixty-second New York, placed temporarily 
under my command, were crowded on board of one 



294 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

of them. On the 30th we started, and on the 31st, in 
the evening, cast anchor before Alexandria. A sad 
return, after the defeat, to the same point from which 
we had departed five months before, confident of vic^ 
tory. 

The boat which carried us was a large sailing vessel, 
which it was necessary to tow, so that the others 
arrived before us. During the night a steamer was 
sent to take us ashore. The darkness was profound ; 
we had no lanterns, and the transportation of baggage 
and of men was made by groping our way. However, 
at daylight, we landed on the wharf of Alexandria. 

The news which awaited us there was disastrous. A 
thousand rumors circulated, each more discouraging than 
the one before. As usual in great reverses, the word 
treason was freely used. The beaten soldier always 
likes to say that he is betrayed by some one. Perhaps 
in this case there might have been a certain degree of 
truth in it ; but certainly not as regards those against 
whom the blind accusations were made. At this time, 
at Alexandria, the hero of the day was Siegel, and 
the scapegoat McDowell. Why this double absurd- 
ity .'' This it Is impossible to explain, especially since 
tardy justice has brought out the facts, and shown who 
did their duty nobly, and who betrayed their trust. 

But, however that might have been, through all the 
sinister exaggerations, the one undeniable fact of a 
defeat was plainly evident. Beaten for the second time 
at Manassas, the army had retreated across Bull Run 
and taken position at Centreville, where the corps of 
Sumner and Franklin furnished too late a reenforce- 
ment of about forty thousand fresh troops. 

At three o'clock in the afternoon I received the 
order to join the rest of the brigade, which had pre- 
ceded us to Fairfax Court House, with my two regi- 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 295 

ments. We departed immediately. Some regiments, 
more fortunate than we, were taken by rail ; but, the 
number of cars not being sufficient for all, we were 
obliged to g-o to our destination on foot. 

The heat was frightful. Toward sunset, dense 
masses of dark clouds commenced to pile up on the 
horizon, and soon the heavens resounded with the 
deep, rolling thunder which threatened us with a storm. 
And now a premature darkness enveloped us in its 
heavy atmosphere. Night came on before its time, 
and almost immediately the rain poured down upon us 
in torrents. 

The severity of the storm caused us to hope that it 
would be of short duration ; but it was not so, for the 
rain continued to fall, with more or less violence, until 
after midnight. Soon the road became a mud-hole, 
in which one could with difficulty direct his steps by 
the flashes of lightning. Disorder began to affect the 
ranks. The soldiers advanced painfully through the 
sticky earth, from which they could hardly lift their 
feet. The middle of the road was soon monopolized by 
an interminable file of wagons retreating towards Alex- 
andria. Mingled with them were batteries of artillery, 
which, endeavoring to pass by the wagons, blocked the 
road. The orders of officers, the cries of the team- 
sters, the oaths of the soldiers were mingled with the 
peals of thunder. All this produced a deafening tu- 
mult, in the midst of which it was difficult to recog- 
nize each other, and from the confusion of which we 
could not free ourselves without leaving behind us a 
large number of stragglers. The farther we advanced, 
the greater the number became. In the woods which 
we had to pass through, the great trees on all sides 
invited the tired men to a few moments of repose. 
Many yielded to the temptation, thinking to rejoin 



296 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

their battalion at the first halt. But in that dark 
night, in the midst of a current of wagons and cannon, 
of men and beasts marching in the other direction, how 
could they make up for lost time, and regain the regi- 
ment ? The officers could do nothing. The compa- 
nies were mixed together, and, in the obscurity, no 
watch could be kept. The Sixty-second dropped off 
almost entirely along the road. In the Fifty-fifth not 
an officer remained behind (I had but sixteen) ; but 
two-thirds of the men were missing at roll-call, when, 
towards eleven o'clock in the evening, we halted at the 
outskirts of the village of Fairfax. 

There everything was in terrible confusion. By the 
light of the fires kindled all round in the streets, in 
the yards, in the fields, one could see a confused mass 
of wagons, ambulances, caissons, around which thou- 
sands of men invaded the houses, filled up the barns, 
broke down the fences, dug up the gardens, cooked 
their suppers, smoked, or slept in the rain. These men 
belonged to different corps. They were neither sick 
nor wounded ; but, favored by the disorder inseparable 
from a defeat, they had left their regiments at Centre- 
ville, to mingle with the train escorts, or had come 
away, each by himself, hurried on by the fear of new 
combats ; stragglers and marauders, a contemptible 
multitude, whose sole desire was to flee from danger. 

None of them could give any information as to the 
position of the division. The officers whom I had sent 
for information returned without having found out 
anything. We were compelled to bivouac where we 
were and wait for daylight. 

The village of Fairfax was small, surrounded by gar- 
dens and barnyards. Near a board fence, already half 
destroyed, and which served to keep up our fires, we 
seated ourselves upon some stones to dry our soaked 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 297 

garments and warm our benumbed limbs. The rain 
was still falling, but we could see that it was nearly 
over. The men promptly rolled themselves in their 
blankets and slept around their stacked arms, without 
troubling themselves about the mud. A few officers 
went to find out the news. All was of the most dis- 
couraging character. Beaten at Manassas, the army 
had with difficulty rallied at Centreville, and continued 
its retreat towards Washington. 

Among all the reports, true or false, which were told 
me during that ill-omened night, there is one the sad 
impression of which has never left me : Kearney had 
been killed that evening. This was not only a sorrow 
for his friends ; it was a great loss for the army and for 
the country. 

Philip Kearney belonged to a highly esteemed family, 
one which had already furnished a general to the United 
States. None possessed to a greater degree the tastes 
and the qualities of a soldier. To these natural gifts, 
and to a military education which he had received at 
West Point, he had joined, besides, an experience which 
very few of the officers of our army had received. 
Thus, sent on a mission to France, to study especially 
the organization of the cavalry, instead of contenting 
himself with the information given him by the War 
Department, and with the study of the regiments in the 
Paris garrison, he had courageously subjected himself 
to all the exercises of the school at Saumur, where he 
had passed two years. He afterwards visited Algiers, 
where he accompanied the Duke of Orleans as honor- 
ary aid during the campaign of Portes de Fer. He 
obtained there the only distinction in his power to 
obtain, the cross of the Legion of Honor. He after- 
wards was offered a command in the French service, in 
the Foreign Legion ; but he preferred to return to 



298 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

America, where the Mexican War soon furnished him 
an opportunity to distinguish himself. After having 
signalized himself in many engagements, he lost an arm, 
and attained the rank of major at the attack on Mexico. 

Later on, he left the service to enjoy his large fort- 
une. In 1 86 1 he resided at Paris, where, at his house, 
his friends and countrymen always found a cordial wel- 
come and an elegant hospitality. Politics interested 
him very little, and he received with an equal cordiality 
his old comrades of the army, whether they were from 
the North or from the South. But when the war broke 
out between the two sections of the country he did not 
hesitate in the fulfilment of his duty. At the first 
sound of the cannon, renouncing family joys and the 
tranquil comforts of the rich man, he left immediately 
to ask employment from the federal government. Soon 
after his arrival he was appointed brigadier-general of 
volunteers. 

On the Peninsula he commanded a division which 
shone amongst all by its bearing and its discipline, its 
dash in attack and its obstinacy in defence. The soul 
of Kearney was in it and animated it, even to the end, 
after it had lost its chief, whose memory always re- 
mained in its ranks like a living presence. 

Kearney was appointed major-general at Harrison's 
Landing. This promotion, merited twice over, lost 
much of its value in his eyes because it was included 
in a batch made up without discrimination on the Fourth 
of July, the anniversary of national independence. All 
the brigadier-generals who, during a campaign, had 
commanded a division, well or poorly, were promoted 
at the same time, and all the colonels who were com- 
manding brigades received equally the star of brigadier- 
general. Deplorable system, which contributed not a 
little to prolong the period of our reverses. 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 299 

Kearney played an active and brilliant part in the 
series of combats which Pope had to fight. At Manas- 
sas he attacked the enemy so vigorously that he drove 
him beyond the railroad which covered him. This par- 
tial success ought to have given us a victory. In fact, 
Kearney's attack should have coincided with an attack 
by Porter's corps against the right of the Confederates. 
But Porter did not come into action, and left the enemy 
at liberty to send reenforcements to his outflanked wing. 
Kearney was compelled to abandon the ground he had 
gained, and fortune turned against us. 

On September i, Lee, pursuing our retreating forces, 
came up to our right near Chantilly. General Stevens 
having been killed, his division, short of ammunition, 
fell back in disorder. Kearney hurried forward Birney's 
brigade to maintain our line, and supported it by a bat- 
tery of artillery, which he put in position himself. How- 
ever, a gap still remained open. In order to know what 
was the length of the opening, and its perils, he rode 
alone in that direction, leaving his staff officers and 
orderlies, in order not to attract attention. — The lat- 
ter waited his return in vain ; he never came back. — 
Carried away by his ardor, he had advanced, without 
perceiving it, to the line of the enemy's skirmishers, 
concealed along the edge of a wood. When he was 
but a few paces distant, the one nearest cried out to 
him to surrender. For answer, "he faced about, and, 
lying down on his horse's neck, set out at a gallop. 
The balls flew more quickly than he. One struck him 
above the hip and passed through his body. He fell, 
and died in a few minutes. 

The Confederate generals, whose comrade and friend 
he had been before becoming one of their most formi- 
dable adversaries, wished, on this occasion, to show in 
what esteem they held him. By order of General Lee, 



300 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the body of General Kearney, his horse, equipments, 
and arms were delivered to us, without the loss of any- 
thing. A fiery spirit and noble heart, he, in this man- 
ner, commanded the sympathy and admiration even of 
the enemies whom he was fighting. 

This fatal death brought to my mind the last words 
which he had spoken to me in my tent, where he some- 
times came to talk of France, of Paris, of our mutual 
friends in New York, and of the thousand things which 
always interested him, as a man of the world, in the 
midst of his duties as a soldier. As I remarked to him 
that now he was engaged in a path which might lead 
to everything, — 

" Oh ! " said he, " do not exaggerate. Doubtless, I 
could command a corps with some distinction ; but a 
higher position would probably be beyond my ability, and 
I do not think of the position of a commander-in-chief. 
— ' Such a one shines as a commander of the second 
rank,' you know the phrase. So I have not the am- 
bition for myself that my friends have for me. Let the 
war be finished in whatever way and I will return imme- 
diately to take up my family life in Paris, satisfied with 
having done my duty and with having done nothing 
with which to reproach myself." 

Thus we plan. He had counted without regard to 
death, which awaited him in twenty days from that 
time. The public grief was great, especially at New 
York, where the funeral ceremonies were imposing. 
But nowhere was his loss so deeply felt as in the Army 
of the Potomac, of which he had been one of the chief 
glories, and where the thousand tales told at the camp- 
fires finished by giving to his memory the proportions 
of a legendary hero. 

During the night that we passed at Fairfax Court 
House, very few of the men rejoined the regiment, on 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 3OI 

account of the thousand difficulties resulting from the 
general confusion. The greater number of those whom 
we had left behind had gathered in squads, remain- 
ing alongside the road to wait our return. At daylight 
most of the stragglers, assembled around the village, 
had taken up their way for Alexandria. To all ques- 
tions, they replied, invariably, that the whole army was 
following in retreat and that those who wished to rejoin 
their regiments could do no better than to wait until 
they came along. And, in fact, the army trains rolled 
unceasingly along the road, soon followed by the artillery 
and infantry. 

Having heard, by report, as to the position of the 
division, I joined as the extreme rearguard, following 
back along the vast human current, and crossing two 
lines of battle, which proved to me that, at least, the 
retreat was not being conducted entirely without order. 
I had unfortunately with me but a handful of men, but 
everything was precious then. We were immediately 
sent out on picket, on the Centreville road, where the 
enemy was expected to appear every minute. The 
Tenth Massachusetts and the Twenty-ninth New York 
were with us. Here a few of those who had been sep- 
arated from us involuntarily the night before rejoined 
us. 

In the afternoon came our turn to fall back, which 
we did without the cavalry vedettes, who covered us, 
discovering the enemy. He had, in fact, given up fur- 
ther pursuit. The retrograde movement had continued 
the whole day without hindrance or disorder. But, 
when night came on, matters took on another aspect. 

Those who for eight days had done nothing but 
march and fight were worn out with fatigue. Every 
one knew that the enemy was no longer at our heels. 
No salutary fear kept them in the ranks, and many 



302 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARJVIY. 

gave way to the temptation to take a few hours' rest. 
They lighted great fires, whose number became greater 
and greater, so that at a few leagues from Alexandria 
the whole country appeared to be illuminated. 

There was everywhere along the road the greatest 
confusion. Infantry and cavalry, artillery and wagons, 
all hurried on pell-mell, in the midst of rallying cries of 
the officers and calls and oaths of the men. 

I remember that our brigade was cut in two by a 
convoy of horses belonging to Banks' corps. Being 
fastened two by two to a long rope, and throwing them- 
selves to the right and left, they created everywhere 
the greatest confusion. Without news or orders from 
General Howe, whose staff officers were invisible dur- 
ing the whole night, I devoted myself especially to 
keeping the battalion together, a task rendered less 
difficult by the reduction, since the evening, of the men 
remaining around the flag. 

In this manner, each regiment arrived separately in 
the line of fortifications which covered Alexandria. 
There a staff officer of the division directed us, by a 
crossroad, upon a field near the seminary. A few 
twigs, picked up here and there, enabled us to light two 
or three poor fires, around which we went to sleep, 
without any supper. Our haversacks were empty. 

The next day all the newspapers announced, with a 
tone of exultation, that the army was safe in the Wash- 
ington intrenchments. This ivas something to boast 
of, indeed ! 

The unfortunate campaign of Pope was immediately 
the object of the most violent censures. McClellan's 
friends filled the air with their cries. According to 
their account, the Army of the Potomac had been sacri- 
ficed by the presumption of an unskilful general, who 
had lost his head in the presence of the enemy. The 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 303 

newspapers of the party to which McClellan had joined 
himself without reserve, by his famous letter of July 7, 
were full of recriminations, whose object was not diffi- 
cult to perceive. — " See what is the result of the 
ridiculous rodomontade of Pope ! Was it worth the 
while to bring an ignorant and incapable general from 
the West, solely because he was the personal friend of 
the President ! Such was the result of favoritism. If 
McClellan had been heeded, Richmond would perhaps 
now be in our power. But, in order to abase the only 
general capable of finishing the rebellion, the only one 
who understood the true character of the war and the 
manifest will of the people, the fruit of a whole year of 
efforts and sacrifices had been lost ! " etc. 

In all these tirades there was much more of passion 
than of reason. Above all things, the question was to 
reinstate McClellan. To accomplish this end, the 
defeat of Pope offered a means, which was worked to 
its utmost possible extent, and it succeeded. At a 
later date, the truth, which, in the stress of circum- 
stances at the time, could not be investigated, has be- 
come known. To-day the records in the case are open 
to the examination of every one, and allow an impartial 
judgment to be formed. 

As for myself, in this matter, I can well apply the 
saying of Tacitus in reference to Otho, Galba, and 
Vitellius : MiJii ncc benejicio ncc injuria cogniti. 
McClellan and Pope have neither of them ever done 
me a favor or an injury. To the former I have never 
addressed a word, except to thank him for a compliment 
addressed to my regiment, and I have never been near 
or seen the latter in my life. 

That Pope did not show himself equal to the high 
position in which he was placed, that he did not accom- 
plish what was expected of him, — this is, I think, a 



304 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

fact that no one will contest. But justice demands, in 
his favor, that the many extenuating circumstances be 
considered. In the first place, his task was Herculean ; 
and, in order to accomplish it, he must have been a 
great captain, and great captains are very rare. In 
the next place, the reenforcements and aid on which 
he had a right to rely failed him in a great part, 
which kept him constantly in a disadvantageous posi- 
tion in front of the enemy. Finally, the ill-will and 
disobedience of at least one of his corps commanders 
contributed sensibly to defeat his plans and paralyze 
his efforts. 

Let us recall the facts : — 

On July 20, when Pope, having on his hands the 
whole Confederate army, took position behind the 
Rappahannock, he had not yet received a single man of 
those whom for more than a week McClellan had had 
a formal order to send to him. Nevertheless, a first 
attempt of Jackson to turn his right at Sulphur Springs 
was vigorously repulsed on the 22d. 

Then Jackson, making a long circuit with forced 
marches, on the 26th reached Bristoe Station, in Pope's 
rear, and broke his communications with Washington, 
by destroying the railroad. This bold movement 
should have been coincident with an attack in front. 
Lee, with the bulk of his forces, should have dis- 
lodged Pope from his position on the Rappahannock, 
while Jackson struck him in the rear; in this manner 
routing him, and leading perhaps to the destruction 
of his force. Otherwise, Jackson's march was a grave 
fault, and exposed himself to the danger of being 
crushed. It came very near resulting in this way, for 
Pope, preventing Lee's attack, and being reenforced 
on the way by the two corps of Heintzelman and Por- 
ter, arrived at last from the Peninsula, hastened to 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 305 

manoeuvre so as to surround Jackson at Manassas, 
where he had retreated. 

It was in the execution of this capital combination 
that the ill-will from which Pope was to suffer so much 
began to be manifest. On the 27th, Hooker had met 
and driven in the rearguard of Jackson at Bristoe. 
Porter, the close friend and favorite of McClellan, 
ought to have been there at daylight on the 28th, to 
make a success of this first advantage. He did not 
appear until about ten o'clock, and every one can well 
see what a delay of six or seven hours means in such 
a case. 

Jackson slipped through his adversary's fingers, and 
succeeded in rejoining Lee. It was very ably done by 
him, but one must admit that he would not have suc- 
ceeded if Pope, even without Porter's cooperation, had 
taken his measures better. 

However, nothing material even yet was lost, pro- 
vided that the corps of Sumner and Franklin should 
appear on the field of action. Unhappily, McClellan 
had arrived at Alexandria, and, on the 27th, had re- 
ceived orders to take entire direction of the despatch 
of troops to the rival whose success would be his own 
condemnation. From that moment, of the forty thou- 
sand men he had present under his command, not a 
man joined Pope. Why } This is what McClellan 
himself explains clearly to us, in a despatch addressed 
to Mr. Lincoln, on August 29, at forty-five minutes past 
two in the afternoon. 

" It is evident to me," he writes to the President, 
"that one or the other of these propositions should be 
adopted : — First, concentrate all our disposable forces, 
to open covimunication zvith Popey (Not, take notice, 
to reenforce Pope, for which he had received the formal 
order, twenty times repeated from day to day, and 



306 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

almost from hour to hour, but simply to facilitate his 
retiring within the fortified lines.) " Secondly, to let 
Pope get out of his scrape as he best can, and employ all 
our resources to put the capital in perfect safety." 

Let Pope get otit of his scrape as he best caji ! In that 
phrase his motive is betrayed. Commentary is unnec- 
essary. 

Franklin and Sumner were kept inactive by all kinds 
of idle pretexts, the puerile character and contradictions 
of which one cannot imagine without reading them in 
detail in the official documents published on this sub- 
ject by Congress, notably in the series of telegrams 
exchanged between General McClellan and General 
Halleck, and serving as an appendix to the deposition 
of the latter before the committee on the conduct of 
the war. 

In regard to Porter's conduct, military justice has 
pronounced. He was cashiered, dismissed from the 
army, and declared incapable of occupying any position 
of confidence, honor, or profit under the government of 
the United States. 

Thus, the absence of two corps looked for in vain ; 
the failure of opportune cooperation of a third corps by 
the default of its commander ; the errors of some 
division commander ; some orders badly given or 
badly executed, — everything turned against Pope. 
The result was a fatal want of united action in the con- 
centration of his forces and in the different fights, which 
ended in the defeat of Manassas. 

Since that time, the country has allotted to each one 
his share in these reverses, and weighed in the balance 
the responsibility of Pope and of McClellan. But what 
was understood at the time .'' The soldier, so much 
the more irritated at his defeat because he had fought 
well, was ready to put the blame on whosoever was 



FROM CHARYBDIS TO SCYLLA. 307 

pointed out to him as being in fault. Outside of the 
army, public opinion, at first undecided, was soon di- 
rected in the way that appearances, unscrupulously ex- 
aggerated, seemed to point. Government itself had its 
hand forced. 

Pope disappeared from the scene to guard the dis- 
tant frontiers of the Northwest, while McClellan, rein- 
stated in an unmerited popularity, united under his 
command the Army of the Potomac, that of Virginia, 
and the troops brought by Burnside from North Caro- 
lina. 

McDowell was sacrificed. It was his ill-luck always 
to be the scapegoat for others. On the other hand, 
Hooker was promoted to the command of the First 
Corps. This, at least, was an act of justice. 

In the midst of the wild rumors and false reports 
which were day after day brought to the capital, and by 
which sometimes a general, sometimes an army corps, 
was held up for reprobation, the glorious reputation of 
the Third Corps (Heintzelman) remained above all sus- 
picion. In Northern Virginia, as on the Peninsula, its 
two generals of division, Kearney and Hooker, had vied 
with each other in their eagerness to obey, and in their 
ardor for battle. It was impossible not to recognize 
the superior merit shown by both in their commands. 
Kearney was dead ; but Hooker survived, reserved 
by fortune for more difficult trials and more brilliant 
services. 



CHAPTER XV. 

BETTER TIMES. 

Invasion of Maryland by the Confederates — Passage of the Fifty-fifth 
through Tenallytown — Advance posts on the Monocacy — Transfer 
to the Third Corps — Appearance of Washington — A legacy from 
Kearney — General Birney — How Harper's Ferry surrendered to 
the enemy — Battles on South Mountain — Condition of the two 
armies — Battle of Antietam — Attacks in detail — Incomplete Re- 
sult — McClellan's hesitations — Lee returns to Virginia. 

When General Lee had given up the pursuit of our 
army retreating upon Washington, it was not simply to 
sleep on his victory, or to put himself in position to 
protect that portion of Virginia which he had retaken 
from us. He had higher aims, and, encouraged by his 
success, had resolved to "fight the Romans in Rome." 
This was why, leaving us to return to Alexandria in 
the condition we have seen, he marched straight for 
Leesburg, crossed the upper Potomac, and invaded 
Maryland without opposition. From September 7, he 
had camped with his whole army around Frederick, 

At this news, General McClellan, in his turn, began 
to move to meet his adversary. He took with him the 
P^irst and Ninth Corps (Hooker and Reno), under the 
command of Burnside ; the Second Corps, to which 
was added the Twelfth (Mansfield), both under the 
command of Sumner ; the Sixth Corps (Franklin), reen- 
forced by Couch's division ; and the P'ifth Corps, still 
commanded by Porter, — the whole forming an effec- 
tive force of ninety thousand men, including the re- 
serve artillery and Pleasonton's cavalry. 

308 



BETIER TIMES. 3O9 

The force of the Confederate army was nearly the 
same, although its generals have represented that it 
was much less. 

Our halt near Washington did not last long, but was 
sufficient to bring back all the stragglers to the ranks. 
The horses and baggage left behind at Yorktown did 
not reach us until later. 

On the 4th, the regiment camped on high ground, 
near Chain Bridge, which was so familiar to us. On 
the 5th we crossed the bridge, and by a well known 
road reached Tenallytown, passing by our old camp, 
now occupied by others, and near which our friends of 
the preceding winter were assembled along the road- 
side to greet us by voice and gesture. 

This short interview was full of mournful recollec- 
tions. What a contrast between the departure and the 
return ! We had started out in the spring gay, smart, 
well provided with everything. The drums beat, the 
bugles sounded ; the flag, with its folds of immaculate 
silk, glistened in the sunshine. And we were return- 
ing before the autnmn, sad, weary, covered with mud, 
with uniforms in rags. Now the drummers carried 
their cracked drums on their backs, the buglers were 
bent over and silent ; the flag, riddled by the balls, torn 
by shrapnel, discolored by the rain, hung sadly upon 
the staff, without cover. 

Where were the red pantaloons ? Where were the 
Zouave jackets ? And, above all, those who had worn 
them, and whom we looked in vain along the ranks to 
find, what had become of them ? Killed at Williams- 
burg, killed at Fair Oaks, killed at Glendale, killed at 
Malvern Hill ; wounded or sick in the hospitals ; pris- 
oners at Richmond ; deserters, we knew not where. 
And, to make the story short, scarcely three hundred 
revisited Tenallytown and Fort Gaines on their way 



3IO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

to fight in upper Maryland. This was not very cheer- 
ful, but nimporte ! Should we all fall there, even to 
the last one, the rebel flag should never float over 
Washington ! 

The army advanced slowly and with caution. In 
this General McClellan did not depart from his usual 
habits, but here the circumstances demanded prudence. 
The Confederates menaced Baltimore as well as Wash- 
ington. While endeavoring to divine their intentions, 
it was necessary for him to cover the two cities, and to 
guard against making any movement so marked as to 
give passage to his adversary on one side or the other. 
Thus, we did not reach Poolesville until the afternoon 
of the loth, having taken five days to march the dis- 
tance ordinarily made in two. Poolesville is an insig- 
nificant village, but its position gives it a real military 
importance. It is, in fact, situated at the centre of a 
segment of a circle, formed by the Potomac, and at a 
short and equal distance from three fords, by which the 
river can easily be passed. 

We had hardly stacked arms when General Couch 
sent for me. I found him in his tent, preoccupied and 
concerned. 

" I have sent for you," said he to me, " to send you 
on a mission which is not without danger nor unim- 
portant. Some reports have come to us, which make 
us fear that the enemy meditates the destruction of 
the aqueduct on which the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal 
crosses the Monocacy, at the point where it empties 
into the Potomac. It must be prevented. The aque- 
duct is six miles from here. You will go there with 
your regiment immediately. A guide will show you 
the way. You will take the best measures of defence 
which the topography of the country will allow. In 
that respect I rely entirely on your judgment. Unfor- 



BETTER TIMES. 3II 

tunately, I have neither artillery nor reserve to give 
you, so that you must depend solely upon yourself, in 
case of an attack. However, I will keep open commu- 
nication with you, with a few horsemen that I have. 
As long as you can hold your position, hold it. As 
long as you can fight, fight. But if you are dis- 
lodged by a superior force, your line of retreat is that 
by which you are to advance. The best road will be 
the one by which you will have the chance of meeting 
the small reenforcement that I can send you in such 
case, whether to enable you to retake the offensive or 
to protect your return to our lines." 

"General," I said, "I will do my best." 

And, as I was about to go out, he added, with a cer- 
tain solemnity, which was not habitual to him : — 

"The time has come when every one must do his 
duty, and more than his duty, for never has the Repub- 
lic been in greater danger." 

This reflection struck me as the expression of a 
sentiment which animated the army at that time. The 
confidence in McClellan had been restored, and the late 
reverses had much less beaten down the courage of the 
soldier than excited in his heart the resolution to have 
his revenge. Every one then was ready to do his duty, 
and more than his duty. This was well manifested in 
a few days. 

We were en route in a quarter of an hour. 

We reached the aqueduct before sundown. The 
position was very good and favorable for defence. The 
bank where we were was wooded. By its elevation it 
completely commanded the opposite bank, which was 
level and bordered by large fields entirely without 
cover. Near the canal, too, rose a hill, from which one 
could see a long distance, with nothing to break the 
view, and, lastly, a regiment of Massachusetts cavalry 



312 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

was in our immediate neighborhood. Decidedly, the 
mission on which we were sent was not as dangerous 
as the general thought it to be. I did not the less 
take all requisite precaution in the disposition of my 
little force. I established a line of advanced sentinels 
in the plain, to prevent all surprise ; I had fires lighted 
and tents pitched on the hill, so that the aqueduct might 
appear to be protected by a larger force than that 
which I had at my disposal; — and, that done, I went 
to sleep on the doorsill of a hut abandoned but left 
locked. In Maryland, we were no longer in an enemy's 
country. The property of individuals was respected as 
scrupulously as possible. 

The night passed without an alarm, and the day 
broke without any threatening signs. In the morning, 
a hundred men crossed the Potomac, a mile away from 
us. They were stragglers, who were rejoining the Con- 
federate army in little squads, and marauders, whom 
Lee's cavalry was taking back to their regiments. 
With these exceptions, there was no appearance of any 
force of the enemy in front of our position. 

Towards noon the Twenty-third Pennsylvania came 
to relieve us. It was accompanied by a regiment of 
cavalry and two pieces of artillery. 

We rejoined the division at Poolesville, to learn that 
we were no longer to form part of it. We were re- 
placed by a newly raised regiment, composed of recruits 
who had never been under fire. But in the eyes of 
General Howe it had one great merit, that of adding 
seven hundred men to his brigade, 

In other circumstances, this measure would have 
been very agreeable to me. General Albion P. Howe, 
whose unsociable disposition had formerly been the 
cause of his being put in quarantine by his fellow- 
officers of the regular army, was not a commander 



BETTER TIMES. 313 

under whom one would desire very ardently to serve. 
Our intercourse had been purely official, and very cool, 
since, at the time of the reconnoissance at Haxall's Land- 
ing, I had taken the liberty to remark to him that there 
was some difference between an infantry soldier and an 
artillery horse. That since that time he had labored to 
have me replaced in his brigade, I could not help but 
know. But to gain his object, since our march from 
Alexandria to Fairfax, on that tempestuous night, when 
so many men fell behind; he had been pleased to repre- 
sent that the regiment had become demoralized by the 
extent of its losses, and incapable of doing good service 
until it had been reestablished, both morally and mate- 
rially. The transfer order was consequently made, 
ostensibly for that reason. 

In the evening, on taking leave of General Couch, I 
protested earnestly against the order which sent me to 
Washington on the eve of a battle, and against the in- 
justice of the allegation, which besides was contradicted 
by the post of honor assigned to the regiment that very 
evening. But there was nothing to do but to obey. I 
gave the order, to depart at sunrise the next morning. 
— I will add here that Couch's division was not en- 
gaged at Antietam, which relieved me from the only 
regret I might have had on account of leaving before a 
battle. 

On arriving at Washington, I went, conformably to 
orders I had received, to present myself to General 
Banks, who, at that time, commanded the defences of 
the capital. In the meantime I halted the regiment at 
Tenallytown, so as to be able to cross the Potomac at 
Chain Bridge, if I should be sent in that direction, 
which was the case as it happened. 

The appearance of Washington was much changed. 
Congress was not in session ; nearly all the members 



314 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

were absent. With them had disappeared the swarm 
of office-seekers. On the other hand, the members of 
the diplomatic corps were absent on their summer 
vacations, which the passage of an army through the 
capital would not induce them to shorten. No stran- 
gers were to be seen. The resident population alone 
remaining appeared a prey to the greatest anxiety. 
The Northern sympathizers feared for their safety ; the 
Southerners dreaded a defeat for the Confederate army 
in consequence of the attitude, passive if not hostile, of 
upper Maryland, which had not risen in insurrection 
as they had expected. Lee's proclamations, calling on 
the inhabitants to join him, had been without response. 
The ground threatened to give way under his feet to 
the north of the Potomac, and the new Antaeus lost 
his strength on leaving the ground of Virginia, his 
mother. Lastly, the certainty of a battle, and one 
which might be decisive, put every one in a fever of 
excitement, and left no room for any other thought. 

The military administration itself felt the effects of 
it, and was not exempt from confusion. For instance, 
on the 1 6th I was assigned to Kearney's old division, 
the command of which had just been given to General 
Stoneman. But where was General Stoneman .'' It 
was not known at headquarters, only his division must 
be somewhere south of the river. I was consequently 
compelled to telegraph General Heintzelman, the com- 
mander of that part of the defences. The latter knew 
no more of its whereabouts than General Banks, so that 
we were compelled to start out and find it. 

We crossed Chain Bridge, and, after having passed 
by Arlington, went into camp near Fort Albany, in front 
of Long Bridge. That evening, in searching for infor- 
mation, I finally ran across General Robinson, whose 
brigade formed part of the command to which I was 



BETTER TIMES. 315 

attached. He informed me that General Stoneman 
was absent with one of the brigades, but that, in his 
absence, the remainder of the division was commanded 
by General Birney, whom I would find three miles fur- 
ther on, by the Seminary. 

The division headquarters were, in fact, at the country 
house of the bishop, who had not thought best to remain 
there. When I presented myself the next morning, the 
first officer whom I met was one of my New York 
friends, Major Brevoort, of whose connection with the 
army I was ignorant. He had just arrived, under cir- 
cumstances quite curious and worthy of being reported. 

A few days before leaving the Peninsula, Kearney 
was in search of an assistant adjutant-general. Cer- 
tainly there was no lack of officers around him brave 
and capable of fully performing the duties, but he 
wanted more. What he was seeking for was a man 
of the world, speaking several languages, who had trav- 
elled and lived in society, both in America and abroad. 
The difficulty was to find an officer who would fill both 
parts of the programme. He came to me to let me 
know of his embarrassment and to ask me if I could 
assist him in finding this Phoenix. 

" Such a person is very difficult to find," I said. 
" You will probably find a good officer who will be not 
in the least a man of the world, or a brilliant man of 
the world who will be a poor officer." 

It was then he spoke to me of Brevoort, of whom he 
had thought. 

"Brevoort," I said, "will suit perfectly the condi- 
tions requisite ; but I very much doubt whether he will 
be equally capable as a soldier." 

" Pshaw ! " replied Kearney ; " as to that, I charge 
myself to make him efficient. For the office work 
which I require, all that is wanting is willingness and 



o 



1 6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 



intelligence. Brevoort is abundantly capable in these 
respects, and in a few weeks I will have him well taught. 
It will put a good deal of work on me at first, but after- 
wards I will have gained an agreeable companion for 
the days and hours off duty." 

Henry Brevoort was not less surprised than flattered 
when he received word that he had been appointed 
major of volunteers and assistant adjutant-general on 
the staff of General Kearney, who had then joined Pope. 
He equipped himself hastily and started ; but he arrived 
too late. Kearney had just been killed at Chantilly. 
Nevertheless, Birney accepted the legacy from his 
predecessor, and Brevoort had entered on his duties 
when I presented myself at the bishop's house. 

The man of war received me in the office of the 
churchman. It was elegant and comfortable, and I saw 
nothing there which reminded 'me of the austere con- 
templation of prayer or the pious meditations of a shep- 
herd of souls. Let them say what they will, the path 
strewn with thorns is not the only road to paradise. 
There are also roads perfectly macadamized, which are 
followed by the bishops, whether Protestants or Cath- 
olics. 

General David Birney was a man of ability and edu- 
cation, a gentleman of excellent manners, as well as a 
distinguished officer. His family had formerly lived in 
Alabama, then in Michigan, where his father, James G. 
Birney, had been, in 1844, the first abolition candidate 
for the presidency, as he had been the first planter to 
sacrifice his interests to his principles by emancipating 
his slaves. David Birney had inherited the patriotism 
of his father, but not his political radicalism. His opin- 
ions were moderate. Although condemning the institu- 
tion of slavery, he rather asked for gradual emancipa- 
tion than immediate abolition. The war gave him an 



BETTER TIMES. 



317 



opportunity to gratify his military tastes, poorly satisfied 
by the easy honors of the militia. Leaving in the hands 
of his partner his interests in a profitable practice of the 
law in Philadelphia, he recruited and organized the 
Twenty-third Pennsylvania regiment, at the head of 
which he joined the army. Raised to the grade of 
brigadier-general on the Peninsula, he commanded, for 
the time being, the division in which he had highly dis- 
tinguished himself under the orders of Kearney. 

Our first interview was very pleasant. The plain 
manner in which I explained to him the real reason 
for my transfer to his division appeared to satisfy him 
much better than the reasons indicated in the order of 
transfer, the form of which I did not like. He oblig- 
ingly assured me that he knew too well my services to 
attach any importance to this detail, and that he was 
too happy to have me under his orders to trouble him- 
self about the form of the transfer. He spoke with 
much praise of General Berry, under whose orders I 
was to serve. Then, after having spoken of other mat- 
ters, he ended by inviting me to come and see him as 
often as my duties would permit. 

Poor Birney ! Between us this was the beginning 
of a friendship which lasted, without a break, until 
the day of his death. But how many were already 
dead, and how many were to die before him ! And, at 
the very hour when we were conversing together for 
the first time, twelve of my friends, more or less 
intimate, were lying lifeless on the battle-field at 
Antietam. 

When the Confederates invaded Maryland, their line 
of retreat and their base of supplies were necessarily 
transferred to the valley of the Shenandoah. At the 
point where that river empties into the Potomac, we 
had, at Harper's Ferry, a corps of nine thousand men. 



3 1 8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

commanded by Colonel D. H. Miles of the regular 
army, and a brigade of two thousand men at Martins- 
burg and Winchester, under the command of General 
White of the volunteer service. These troops barred 
the way from the valley. If General Lee had neg- 
lected to dislodge them by main force, it was because 
he thought it sufificient to cut them off from Washing- 
ton, which accomplished the same result. General 
McClellan recommended, in fact, the evacuation, but 
General Halleck was opposed to it, in view of the im- 
portance of that position, to prevent, or at least delay, 
the operations of Lee in upper Maryland. The latter 
then found it necessary, contrary to his first intentions, 
to detach a considerable portion of his force to reduce 
Harper's Ferry. 

The attack was foreseen ; Colonel Miles was ordered 
to hold his position, but Harper's Ferry itself was not 
tenable. It lies at the bottom of a sort of funnel, com- 
manded by two mountains and a high hill, from the 
summit of which the village could be instantly de- 
stroyed. Evidently, the order was to defend the posi- 
tion, and from the point where it was defensible ; that is 
to say, on what are called Maryland Heights, a crowning 
position, protected on one side by a steep precipice, 
and offering on the other every opportunity for an easy 
defence. If Colonel Miles had established himself 
there resolutely, Lee would never have been able to 
force him from it before having the army of McClellan 
on his back, and the position of the Confederates 
would have been a very embarrassing one in which to 
give battle. But, with a folly inexplicable in an officer 
of his rank. Miles stupidly shut himself up in this 
funnel, where White, falling back before Jackson, soon 
came to join him. A mere detachment had been sent 
to the Maryland Heights, from which it was easily 



BETFER TIMES. 3I9 

driven by a Confederate division, while a second took 
position on Loudon Heights, and a third cut off all 
retreat by Bolivar Hill. 

It was September 13. The next day the prepara- 
tions for attack were completed, and on the second 
day the artillery of three divisions opened fire, and in 
two hours Miles surrendered, with nearly twelve thou- 
sand men, delivering to the enemy seventy-three pieces 
of artillery ! He was killed by a last shot, at the 
instant when he had just hauled down the flag which 
he had not known how to defend. A prompt but use- 
less expiation of a fault whose consequences were not 
the less disastrous. 

However, McClellan, on arriving at Frederick, had 
come to the knowledge of the movements of his adver- 
sary by a happy chance, which had delivered into his 
hands a copy of a despatch addressed to the generals of 
his enemy. He knew then that Lee was weakened by 
the absence of three divisions, and that he had retired 
behind Antietam Creek, to await there the result of 
the operations against Harper's Ferry. The occasion 
was offered to him to strike a grand blow. 

Between the two armies there was a chain of moun- 
tains, known as South Mountain. There were two 
passes by which to cross them, about six miles apart. 
Both were forced, notwithstanding an energetic resist- 
ance, thanks to the accessible nature of the surround- 
ing heights. Turner's Gap was carried by Hooker and 
Reno, the latter of whom was, unhappily, killed there. 
We lost there fifteen hundred men, the enemy three 
thousand, fifteen hundred of whom were left prisoners in 
our hands. Crampton's Gap did not cost us so dearly. 
Franklin forced it with the loss of five hundred men, 
killed and wounded, inflicting on the enemy a loss much 
greater, and taking four hundred prisoners. 



322 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

cflers and marauders who had remained behind. The 
Confederate generals should be heard on this head. 
General J. R. Jones, who commanded an elite body of 
troops, the old division of Stonewall Jackson, says in 
his report : " My division was reduced to the effective 
force of a feeble brigade, and did not number more than 
sixteen hundred men." 

General Hill cried out with anger : " Thousands of 
craven-hearted thieves were absent from pure cowardice. 
The straggler is generally a thief and always a coward, 
insensible to every sentiment of shame. He can only 
be kept in the ranks by a strict and bloody discipline." 
And General Lee himself makes the same complaints, 
with more moderation, but not without bitterness : 
" Our ranks were greatly reduced by the arduous service 
to which the army had been forced, by their great want of 
rest and food, and by their long marches without shoes, 
in the mountains. Thousands of brave men had in this 
way been compelled to leave the ranks, while many 
more had done the same from unworthy motives." 

These were the circumstances, on both sides, when 
the battle was fought. 

The Confederate right rested on Antietam Creek, 
whose course protected their entire centre, drawn up in 
front of Sharpsburg. Their left, thrown back, was con- 
nected with the Potomac by their cavalry. This was 
the side where McClellan made his attack. In the 
afternoon (September i6), Hooker advanced up Antie- 
tam Creek, crossed it by a ford, and at nightfall took 
position in front of the left wing of the enemy. The 
lateness of the hour did not allow of opening the fight, 
so that Lee had the whole night in which to get ready. 
Nevertheless, at daylight, Hooker attacked the Confed- 
erates so vigorously that he threw them in disorder 
beyond the Hagerstown road. But the First Corps had 



BETTER TIMES. 323 

attacked all alone. After terrible losses, it was soon 
stopped by new troops sent against it, and forced to fall 
back in confusion, while Hooker, severely wounded, was 
carried off the field of battle. 

Mansfield, who had crossed the Antietam during the 
night, advanced, in his turn, at the head of the Twelfth 
Corps. At the beginning of the engagement he fell, 
mortally wounded. The enemy was, not the less, 
driven back a second time, to the other side of the road. 
But there, again reenforced, he returned to the charge, 
and had retaken the position twice lost, when he found 
Sumner, with the Second Corps, in front of him. Sum- 
ner threw his troops on the Confederate divisions, which, 
much reduced and worn out with fatigue, were rapidly, 
for the third time, driven back upon their shaken centre. 

At this time, a decisive victory appeared to be assured 
to us. Lee's left was swept away, his centre reduced, 
and his reserve enfeebled. Provided his right was en- 
gaged, he had nothing with which to stop Sumner, and 
after him Franklin, — without reckoning Porter, held in 
reserve. Unfortunately, the greater part of the enemy's 
right, composed of Longstreet's corps, remained dis- 
posable. In order to attack, Burnside had, in the first 
place, to carry a narrow stone bridge, under the fire 
from a steep hill crowned with artillery, well covered 
by infantry. His first attempt, begun too late and con- 
ducted too slowly, had been repulsed so easily that 
Longstreet could hold him in check with a single divis- 
ion. The two others (one of which had returned the 
evening before from Maryland Heights) were sent to 
aid the routed left wing. 

On their arrival, they effected an entrance into Sum- 
ner's line, through a gap left between the divisions of 
French and Sedgwick, thus separating the latter, who 
was at our extreme right, and, concentrating their effort 



324 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

against it, drove it back roughly to the point where 
Hooker, in the morning, had opened his first attack. 

By reason of this vigorous offensive return, the 
enemy rallied, and his reenforced centre, in its turn, 
bore bravely against the two divisions of French and 
Richardson. They held their ground. However, it is 
quite possible that they would have been compelled to 
fall back in their turn if Franklin had not come to their 
aid. His arrival enabled us to retain the advantage 
we had so dearly bought at the price of seven hours of 
deadly fighting. It was at this time that Sumner, tired 
of waiting in vain for a serious diversion from Burnside, 
took upon himself to stop Franklin, at the instant when 
he was getting ready to follow up his success. The 
exhausted enemy asked for nothing better. The fire 
ceased on both sides, and the afternoon passed away 
with no more fighting on this part of the field. 

It was only then that the contest, ceasing on the right 
wing, took on the character of a battle on the left. 
The bridge was carried, and the force which defended 
it driven back on Sharpsburg. But it was fated that 
on this day we could not make an advance of two steps 
without falling back at least one. At the moment 
when the threatened capture of the village was about 
to bring certain defeat to the Confederates, A, P. Hill 
appeared, bringing up the last of the three divisions 
sent to Harper's Ferry. This reenforcement was suffi- 
cient to change the face of affairs, and drive back the 
Ninth Corps to the crest of the hill, which commanded 
the course of the creek. Here the varying positions 
and changing fortunes of this bloody day came to a- 
close. 

Was it a victory .-* Not as yet. We had been suc- 
cessful to a certain extent, it is true, since we had 
crossed the Antietam, and carried the advanced posi- 



BETTER TIMES. 325 

tions of the enemy. But, far from having abandoned 
the field of battle to us, he held his line firmly at all 
points. Compelled to fight no longer either to rouse 
Maryland or to gain Baltimore or Washington, but only 
to assure his own safety, he had from the very danger 
itself drawn a redoubled energy, and fought with a 
tenacity which had caused us great losses. In spite of 
everything, however, his position was almost desperate. 
The day's battle had cost him ten thousand men. All 
his troops had been in action. The greater part had 
met with terrible losses. They were worn out by their 
efforts and discouraged by their want of success. On 
our side we had lost about thirteen thousand, but, 
although our loss had been the greater, we were not so 
seriously affected by it, on account of our numerical 
superiority. We had, besides, a reserve of four divisions 
(Porter's corps and Couch's division) which had not fired 
a shot. Finally, our position was much more favorable 
than the night before, no natural obstacle existing 
between us and the enemy which it was necessary to 
surmount. 

Every one slept that night, convinced that the next 
day's sun would witness the destruction of Lee's army by 
a united attack, and that what remained would be driven 
into the Potomac, captured, or dispersed. The generals 
took their measures accordingly. Burnside asked for 
five thousand reenforcements to destroy everything in 
front of him. Franklin, who had with impatience seen 
his action suspended in the middle of the day, would 
finish it so much easier on the morrow, in that he would 
then have his third division (Couch) with him. Sumner 
was well prepared to take his revenge for the mishap of 
one of his divisions. And, finally, it was probable that 
Porter was anxious to make up for the complete inac- 
tion in which he had been kept up to this time. 



326 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

McClellan had only to say the word. — But that word 
he did not say. It was still the McClellan of the Pen- 
insula, faint-hearted and irresolute, not daring to follow 
up a success or parry a reverse ; incapable, on every 
occasion, of handling an army in the face of the 
enemy. 

On September 17, he held Lee in his hands, as it 
were. The plan that he had conceived was incontest- 
ably good ; the execution of it had been most unskilful. 
In place of acting against the enemy's left with three 
army corps together, he had sent each corps in by 
itself and at too long intervals for one to be able to 
profit by the advantage gained by the other. Thus the 
First and the Twelfth had successively seen their first 
success changed to a reverse. The Second came very 
nearly meeting the same fate. Instead of attacking the 
right of the enemy simultaneously, which would have 
prevented the sending of reenforcements to Jackson 
against Sumner, the general-in-chief had contented him- 
self by sending late orders to Burnside, which the 
latter had not executed until still later. The battle of 
Antietam had been fought disconnectedly, without 
agreement or concordance in its different parts. The 
relative success gained there was entirely due to the 
obstinate courage of the soldiers and of the inferior 
ofificers. Nothing else. 

I have vainly sought in all the documents, and in all 
the accounts of the battle which I have seen, an indi- 
cation of the presence of the general-in-chief at any 
point where he could attend to the execution of his 
orders, or see for himself how things were going during 
battle. But in the afternoon, after the fight had ceased 
on our right, he went there to approve the order which 
General Sumner had taken the responsibility of giving, 
and prevent Franklin from renewing the contest with 



I 



BETTER TIMES. 327 

Smith's division, which had been only partially engaged, 
and SlocLim's division, which had not been engaged at 
all. 

Thus the whole of the i8th passed away, and 
McClellan was unable to come to the resolution to 
profit by this last opportunity offered him by fortune. 
He had asked for fifteen thousand men from Washing- 
ton, and he was waiting for them ! Always reenforce- 
ments ; reenforcements quand meine ! 

It has been said that he proposed to renew the attack 
on the 19th. But why on the 19th and not on the i8th .'' 
Was it to give Lee time to escape .-" However that 
might be, Lee was not slow to profit by it. On the 
morning of the 19th, without being disturbed, he had 
put the Potomac between the remnant of his army and 
his obliging adversary, who, it may well be thought, 
had no idea of pursuing him into Virginia. 

Thus ended the first invasion of Maryland by the 
Confederates. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

INTERLUDE. 

General Berry — Volunteer recruiting — Antipathy of the people to the 
conscription — New regiments — Three hundred thousand men raised 
for nine months — The Fifty-fifth reorganized in seven companies 

— Raid of General Stuart into Maryland — The Third Corps at 
Edwards Ferry — General Stoneman — Colonel Duffie — General Mc- 
Clellan's inaction — Correspondence with the President — The army 
returns to Virginia — The different classes of farmers — Forward march 

— General McClellan relieved of his command. 

The retreat of the enemy to Virginia, while depriving 
us of the most important fruits of the battle, left us 
incontestably with the honor of victory. I called on 
General Berry with the order assigning the Fifty-fifth 
to his command. He was a plain straightforward man, 
tall and broad-shouldered. His blue flannel blouse and 
his whole dress gave him very little of a military air. 
But whoever judged him from his appearance would 
have judged badly, for, although he had rather the ap- 
pearance of an honest farmer than that of a brigadier- 
general, he was not the less a good ofificer, as faithful 
to his duty as he was devoted to his soldiers. He 
belonged to that fine race of woodsmen from the State 
of Maine, who, in spite of the appearance of great phys- 
ical vigor, were yet unable to endure the fatigues and 
privations of the war as well as others not so well pro- 
vided for as to stature and muscular strength. In fact, 
experience has proved that, in conditions of good health, 
men rather meagre than fat, rather small in size than of 
tall stature, make more hardy soldiers. In the case of 

328 



INTERLUDE. 329 

the woodsmen of Maine, the fact appears much more 
surprising, in that they had been accustomed from in- 
fancy to open-air work and camping in the forests 
where they carried on their labor. I note the fact, and 
leave to others the explanation. 

The Peninsular campaign, and that of the north of 
Virginia, had already sensibly affected the health of 
General Berry. But in him the moral energy strove 
against physical weakness, and it was only when it 
could not be avoided that he consented to take a leave 
of absence, to reestablish his exhausted strength. 

His brigade was composed of six regiments : three 
of New York — the First, the Thirty-seventh, and the 
Fifty-fifth ; and three of Michigan — the Second, the 
Third, and the Fifth. All of them had lost more than 
half of their effective force, and averaged but about four 
hundred men in each regiment. Hooker's old division 
was in the same condition. This was why the Third 
Corps had been left at Washington to rest and recruit 
its exhausted ranks. 

To rest — that was well said. But recruiting was a 
very different matter. The time had passed when vol- 
unteers poured into the ranks of their own accord. The 
severe trials which the army had undergone, the battles, 
its reverses, and the prospect of a long and hard-fought 
war, had considerably cooled the military enthusiasm. 
It had become necessary to have recourse to bounties. 
Small at first, these bounties gradually became greater 
as circumstances became less and less encouraging, and 
ended by reaching a very high figure. The federal 
government gave one. In order to fill up its quota, 
each State gave another. For the same reason, the 
districts had to furnish a third. So that the price of 
a soldier arose, later on, to eight hundred dollars in 
greenbacks, which represented, according to the fluctua- 



330 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tions of the gold board, from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand francs in gold. 

Thus the people voluntarily imposed on themselves 
the most heavy pecuniary sacrifices to avoid the con- 
scription, against which they always showed a profound 
antipathy. 

Nothing in the world can be more illogical than this 
sentiment. For, in a democratic government, the very 
fact that the government is only the agent of the people, 
sprung from it, and being one with it, makes it incum- 
bent on the people to defend it with all its power. 
There is no ground for distinction. The cause, the 
interest are the same. Whoever says government 
says people. The correlation of rights and duties is 
absolute, and every citizen enjoying the first in all their 
plenitude is bound to fulfil the second to their whole 
extent. So that, in the United States, the conscription 
is not a tribute of blood imposed on the people, it is 
simply the duty imposed by the institutions which it 
has itself formed, and which it would maintain at all 
hazards. 

However, the feeling in this respect, although illogi- 
cal, is not inexplicable. It has its origin in the distrust 
of military institutions, whose too great development 
has always been fatal to liberty. If the conscription 
became an established thing, was it not to be feared 
that after the war it might give birth to a military 
power, useless for the exterior protection of the coun- 
try, and dangerous, perhaps, to its internal security ? 
Much individual apprehension came in aid of these 
general considerations, to induce the people to pay 
large bounties, in order to defer the necessity of resort- 
ing to the draft to fill up the ranks of the defenders of 
the Republic. But it was henceforth a mere euphe- 
mism to call the new levies volunteers. The greater part 



INTERLUDE. 33 1 

of them were really mercenaries. Our veterans of the 
Peninsula, who had neither asked nor received anything 
for taking up arms for their country, called them 
bounty men. 

If they had even been sent to us by squads or com- 
panies to fill up our depleted ranks, we would have quick- 
ly made them serviceable soldiers. Intermingled with 
tried men, placed under the orders of experienced offi- 
cers, they would have soon conformed to discipline and 
been efficient in drill. They would have quickly learned 
their trade, and marched under fire with the confidence 
which the example and support of soldiers give to new- 
comers. 

Generals and colonels asked with equal urgency that 
the vacant ranks of their regiments be filled up. But 
other considerations prevailed with the Governors of 
the States. The thing most desired by them was to 
furnish the number of men called for, and the most 
efficient way of so doing was to form new regiments. 
For these reasons : — 

All the volunteer officers beneath the grade of briga- 
dier-general were, as I have explained elsewhere, 
appointed by the Governors of the States. Now, as the 
commission of captain was assured in advance to who- 
ever should raise a company, many young men went to 
work with that object. Each one was assisted by two 
others, who would receive the rank of first and second 
lieutenant ; and all these used their influence, their 
money, and their friends' money. Independent contri- 
butions, sometimes of quite large amounts, were 
added to the bounties offered. 

The selection of the staff was generally influenced 
by the same reasons, and there were very few colonels, 
lieutenant-colonels, majors, or quartermasters who did 
not owe their commissions to the more or less important 



332 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

part which they had taken in the recruiting of the new 
regiments ; unless, however, their political influence 
was considered as an equivalent ; or unless, through 
their friends or acquaintances, they were in a position 
to ask a favor which would not be without return to the 
appointing power. 

Besides, it was generally supposed that these regi- 
ments, by reason of their want of instruction and their 
inexperience, would be kept around Washington, and 
for guard duty of towns and depots ; and this idea, it 
cannot be denied, operated in favor of new organiza- 
tions, and gave them a marked preference in the eyes 
of those enlisting. 

And, finally, the amour propre of each State was stim- 
ulated as to the number of regiments furnished by each 
to the federal service. This rivalry had been carried 
to such an extent that, to reach a figure more apparent 
than real, a new number was given to the regiments 
which, originally enlisted for three months, had after- 
wards reenlisted for three years, or during the war ! 
So that, for example, the Thirteenth Pennsylvania 
became the One Hundred and Second. Really, it was 
one and the same regiment. But it counted double in 
the account of the force furnished by Pennsylvania, and 
the patriotism of Pennsylvania took on an additional 
lustre. 

To this combination of individual ambitions, of col- 
lective vanities, and political expedients we in the army 
could only oppose the public welfare, and it was not a 
sufficient counterpoise. If, in fact, the recruits had 
been sent directly to us, the State furnishing the troops 
would have lost the cooperation of those who wished to 
obtam commissions on the start ; the number of regi- 
ments furnished by each State would have been dimin- 
ished ; and the enrolment would have been so much 



INTERLUDE. 333 

slower that there would have been less chance of being 
stationed where they would not be under fire. 

To all this there was a remedy — the conscription. 
But the government did not wish to have recourse to 
this except in case of absolute necessity. It was evi- 
dently fear of the unpopularity of the measure, which 
induced it to resort to expedients to avoid the necessity. 

An act of Congress, dated July 17, had authorized 
the President to accept for nine vwntJis the service of 
one hundred thousand volunteers in addition to the five 
hundred thousand who were already under arms. The 
volunteers not coming forward fast enough, in the 
emergency, three hundred thousand militia were called 
for, also for nine months. An order from the War 
Department announced, August 4, the apportionment 
amongst the different States. Those of them whose 
quota was not full by the 15th of the same month 
must fill up the number lacking by a special draft. 

Now, as it was impossible to choose which regiment 
must go, a sufficient number of volunteers must be 
found in their ranks, — which was more than improba- 
ble, — or resort must be had to lot to furnish the 
contingent. It was really a conscription, but a con- 
scription attenuated, disguised, and only for the period 
of nine months, and for that reason necessitating the 
organizing of new regiments. 

The States immediately strove, by exertions and 
bounties, to gather in volunteers, and when they pro- 
ceeded to the draft the demand for substitutes took in 
all the disposable men who had been reserved for that 
speculation. 

Thus three hundred thousand men were called out 
under the flag, who were good for nothing but garrison 
duty, and whom it was necessary to send back to their 
homes when they had become capable of service in the 



334 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

field, at the very time, perhaps, when there would be 
the most use for them. For there was no probability 
of finishing the war in nine jiionths. 

From that time there was no possibility of recruiting 
for our old regiments, whose ranks remained half full. 
In the end, it was necessary, as we shall see, to con- 
solidate the regiments, in order to make them efficient 
for service in the field. 

The latter part of September and the beginning of 
October passed by in this way, while we waited for the 
recruits who did not come. Happily, besides the con- 
scription of the militia, there were some regiments of 
volunteers, that had been organized for some little time, 
which were sent to us. Our brigade was thus reen- 
forced by the Seventeenth Maine. The willingness and 
zeal of this regiment soon made good the deficiencies 
arising from its inexperience. The daily drill dc ri- 
gneur in the camp, the field duty, which was performed 
as if in the face of the enemy, were the best prepara- 
tions for the rough trials from which it would afterwards 
come forth with honor. 

A few changes took place in the disposition of the 
troops. Our brigade was sent to Upton Hill, to relieve 
a division of Sigel's corps, sent to Centreville. There 
my regiment was reorganized in seven companies, in 
order to make room for three new companies promised 
from New York, but which never came. This consolida- 
tion furnished occasion for a certain number of promo- 
tions. The losses, in fact, were not less amongst the 
officers than amongst the men. My lieutenant-colonel 
had resigned at Harrison's Landing, in consequence of 
his slight knowledge of the English language and his 
entire want of education suitable to so high a rank. I 
did not think I ought to ask for a successor. It would 
have been a useless expense for the government, in a 



INTERLUDE. 335 

regiment so much reduced in its effective force. Two 
captains had been obhged to leave the service because 
of disability ; a third, after having deserted, procured a 
discharge, I do not know how. Amongst the lieuten- 
ants, one had been condemned to death for cowardice 
in face of the enemy, three had been dismissed from 
the army by sentence of court-martial. Others had 
been retired on account of wounds or sickness. To 
sum up, of thirty-three officers whom I had taken on 
the Peninsula, I had but fourteen on my return before 
Washington. 

The duties of presiding officer of a court-martial, 
which I had performed the winter before at Tenally- 
town, occupied me almost entirely at Upton Hill. 

It was the nth of October when the division left 
camp to rejoin the army, according to orders received 
the evening before. The Confederate General Stuart 
had reentered Maryland, at the head of fifteen hundred 
cavalrymen, and renewed his exploit of the Peninsula 
by playing the d — 1 around the camps. He had pene- 
trated as far as Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania, and, 
pursued by General Pleasonton, who had, however, but 
eight hundred men, he was approaching the Potomac to 
return to Virginia. As our line was along the river, in 
the part of the country towards which Stuart was aim- 
ing with his spoils, we hoped that we could bar his pas- 
sage, but that good fortune was not given to us. It fell 
to the Second Brigade, which, unhappily, could not profit 
by it. That brigade had been in advance of the two 
others for some time. It had accompanied General 
Stoneman to Poolesville, where it was stationed when 
the enemy appeared in the neighborhood. The colonel 
who commanded it ad interim in the absence of General 
H. Ward, recently promoted, had gone out with two or 
three regiments of infantry and a squadron of cavalry 



336 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

on the aqueduct road near the Monocacy River. There 
he found himself in the presence of the enemy, who oc- 
cupied a wood parallel to the road and separated from 
it by some open fields. At this moment General Ward 
came on the field. Colonel Stoepel hastened to turn 
over the command to him. The general, who did not 
know exactly where the rest of his brigade was, and 
doubtless had no knowledge of the measures taken to 
stop the enemy, took advantage of the terms of his 
leave of absence, whose expiration he had anticipated 
by twenty-four hours. He refused on so sudden a call 
to accept a responsibility for which he was not pre- 
pared. Both parties insisted: — "The command be- 
longs rightfully to you." — " Excuse me ; the command 
is, in fact, in your hands." — "As you are present, I 
have no right to retain it." — "I am absent ; here is 
my leave." I shorten the story. Time passed, and 
nothing was decided on. 

The result was — I had it from a number of eye- 
witnesses — that the enemy, seeing the indecision, fed 
his horses under the eyes of our furious soldiers, and 
afterwards quietly crossed the Potomac a short distance 
from there. He had reached the Virginia bank when 
Pleasonton came up too late, having made, in the pur- 
suit of the raiders, seventy-eight miles in twenty-four 
hours. 

This unfortunate incident left a long and bitter re- 
membrance in the Second Brigade. General Ward was 
shortly after summoned to Washington, where he must 
have made satisfactory explanations, since he returned 
upheld in his command, while Colonel Stoepel left the 
army, his resignation being accepted. 

During this time, our brigade, after having taken 
position on Seneca Creek on the morning of the 12th, 
had been sent the same day, by a rapid march, to Ed- 



INTERLUDE. 337 

ward's Ferry. We arrived there in the night, in a driv- 
ing rain. The next morning, the tempest having abated 
a little and Stuart having succeeded in escaping, we 
went into camp half a mile from there, on some 
ground not so muddy and better situated. 

It was a fine country ; — great woods interspersed 
with broad meadows and cultivated fields, in the centre 
of which arose farmhouses of fine appearance. The 
opinions of the inhabitants favored the South, and more 
than one young man from the families around was in 
the Confederate army. Nevertheless, we were politely 
received, since we took nothing which was not paid for 
in ready money, and the requisitions for wood and forage 
were under the orders of the quartermaster's depart- 
ment. 

The older people were very reserved on the subject 
of politics. The young girls, only, gave free license to 
their tongues, excited by our officers, who were the more 
amused by this frankness as the expression was more 
animated, and in that the grandparents showed them- 
selves much disturbed by it. It was not our place, de- 
fenders of every liberty, to find fault with free speech 
even in the mouths of our enemies. We granted it to 
others as much as we asked it for ourselves. 

General Stoneman had his headquarters at Pooles- 
ville, where I saw him for the first time. His polite 
but reserved manners were those of a gentleman. 
Nothing in his appearance betrayed the energy, active 
and somewhat blustering, which one expects in a cavalry 
general. The poor state of his health, which was the 
cause of his assignment to an infantry command, was, 
besides, enough to explain his somewhat sleepy ap- 
pearance. 

Near his headquarters was camped a regiment of 
New England cavalry, so called because it had been 



338 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

recruited from the New England States, though the 
greater part of its force came from Rhode Island. 
This regiment was commanded by a Frenchman, 
Colonel Duffie, who had found it in a truly pitiful 
condition. A few months had sufficed to transform his 
command and put it on such a footing that the First 
New England Cavalry was already regarded rightfully 
as one of the best regiments, and one of those on which 
reliance could be placed. 

When I visited Colonel Duffie, I found him under his 
tent, surrounded by his officers, to whom he was him- 
self giving a lesson in tactics. We visited his camp 
together, where everything breathed the air of order 
and cleanliness, and a care for the least details of the 
service. The horses were in good condition, the men 
appeared finely, and the equipments were irreproach- 
able. 

In this manner our cavalry was becoming better and 
better. The ignorant or incapable officers had given 
place to others, better instructed and more skilful. 
The cavalrymen, novices at the beginning of the war, 
had better learned their trade, and made war under 
the curb of a more severe discipline. The time was 
approaching when the superiority of the enemy as to 
cavalry was soon to disappear, both as to quality and to 
number, and ere long to be changed to inferiority. 

Nothing marked our stay near Edward's Ferry, 
except the strong feeling caused by an order of the 
Secretary of War, authorizing the transfer to the regu- 
lars of any volunteers who should make the request, — 
and that either with or without the approval of their 
officers. 

This deplorable measure had been inspired solely by 
the desire to fill up the ranks of the regular army. 
But evidently the consequences had not been con- 



INTERLUDE. 339 

sidered. They had not thought that it effected not 
only the further reduction of the regiments of volun- 
teers already so terribly reduced, but also the total 
subversion of discipline in their ranks. The soldier 
could henceforth set his superiors at defiance. He was 
at liberty to pass to the regulars. If he should be 
punished, however he might have deserved it, " All 
right," said he, " I will be transferred to the regulars." 
If he found the chevrons of a corporal were too long in 
coming, "Well, I will try the regulars." The desire 
of change would be sufficient to cause him to ask for a 
transfer. 

So, as though it were not enough for us to be unable 
to replace the men we had lost, a part of those who 
were left were to be taken from us, and the rest de- 
moralized in consequence. And for what reason .-' To 
recruit a corps of troops who were neither better nor 
worse than the others, and who formed an insignificant 
portion in the composition of our armies. I have never 
heard whether there were any regulars in the Western 
armies or not ; in the Army of the Potomac there was 
but one division. Was it worth the while to concern 
themselves so much about it .'' 

From all quarters, the strongest remonstrances were 
made to this order. Then the number of transfers 
authorized was reduced to ten men from a company. 
It was forgotten that a large proportion of the com- 
panie-s had not more than thirty men in their ranks, 
and many even less. Then a pro-rata was established 
according to the effective force in the regiments, com- 
pared to the number of men asked for on a prepared 
list. Finally, the measure was not carried out. It 
ended by being revoked, and the volunteer service lost 
only a few men who were absolutely necessary to man 
the batteries. 



340 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The time passed away. The fine days of October, 
the finest weather of the pleasantest season in the Uni- 
ted States, slipped away without any indication on the 
part of General McClellan of any intention to profit by 
them. More than a month had passed since the battle 
of Antietam, and the army was immovable. It was 
impatient at this long inaction. The country was as- 
tonished at it. Everywhere, it was asked, " What is 
McClellan doing ? " 

What was he doing ? Nothing. What did he wish 
to do .'* Keep us in Maryland, perhaps winter there ; 
who knows .'' Ever since the 23d of September, he had 
recommenced his eternal refrain, by demanding reen- 
forcements, and four days later more reenforcements ! 
While waiting for them, he announced his intention 
of remaining where he was, in order to attack the enemy 
in case he shoiild again cross the Potomac. One would 
naturally think this was a pleasantry, but nothing is 
more serious or true. 

October 1, the President visited the army. Without 
doubt, he returned to Washington convinced of the 
necessity of issuing positive orders to overcome the 
persistent inertia of the general, for on the 6th he sent 
him a formal order, "to cross the Potomac and give 
battle to the enemy, or drive him South." Without 
prescribing to him a line of operations, he stated simply 
that McClellan could have thirty thousand reenforce- 
ments, by advancing in such a way as to place himself 
between the enemy and Washington while twelve 
thousand only could join him if he operated in the 
Shenandoah valley, much more distant from the capital. 

The reply was that the army could not be moved in 
the condition in which it was. It needed so many tents, 
so many shoes, so many uniforms, such and such sup- 
plies and equipments, etc. And twenty other pretexts. 



INTERLUDE. 34 I 

The President replied to the general's objections 
with rare good-sense. He wrote to him October 13 : — 

..." As I understand, you telegraphed General 
Halleck that you cannot subsist your army at Winches- 
ter unless the railroad from Harper's Ferry to that 
point is put in working order. But the enemy does 
now subsist his army at Winchester, at a distance 
nearly twice as great from railroad transportation as 
you would have to do without the railroad last named. 
He now wagons from Culpepper Court House, which is 
just about twice as far as you would have to do from 
Harper's Ferry. He is certainly not more than half as 
well provided with wagons as you are. I certainly 
should be well pleased for you to have the advantage of 
the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester ; but 
it wastes all the remainder of the autumn to give it to 
you, and, in fact, ignores the question of time, which 
cannot and must not be ignored. 

" Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you 
know, is to operate upon the enemy's communications 
as much as possible without exposing your own. You 
seem to act as if , this applies against you, but can- 
not apply in your favor. Change positions with the 
enemy, and think you not he would break your commu- 
nications with Richmond within the next twenty-four 
hours } 

" You dread his going into Pennsylvania. But if he 
does so in full force, he gives up his communications to 
you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to fol- 
low and ruin him. If he does so with less than full 
force, fall upon and beat what is left behind, all the 
easier," 

Nothing was done. One pretext disposed of, Mc- 
Clellan found another. And so the days ran on, and 
the army did not move. 



342 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Sometimes the impatience of the President was 
expressed in biting irony. Here is one of his de- 
spatches dated October 25 : — 

" I have just read your despatch about sore tongues 
and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking 
what the horses of your army have done since the bat- 
tle of Antietam that fatigues anything ? " 

And then McClellan complained that the services of 
his cavalry had been disparaged. Afterwards he wished 
to know what should be done to protect Maryland when 
he went into Virginia. He advised this, he objected to 
that, and, once under way, he arrived (on paper) at 
Bragg's army. Upon which General Halleck very sen- 
sibly remarked to him that Bragg's army was four 
hundred miles away, while Lee's army was but twenty. 
As a last resort, McClellan discovered that it was 
necessary to fill up the old regiments before putting 
them in the field. 

If the matters concerned had not been so grave, it 
would have been equal to any comedy. But the coun- 
try was not in the humor to laugh at jokes, especially 
when it did not understand them. It saw only the 
incomprehensible inaction of the Army of the Potomac, 
and was indignant at it. McClellan's friends endeav- 
ored to throw the responsibility on the President, on 
General Halleck, on the Secretary of War. The parti- 
sans of the government saw only in the delay the action 
of McClellan conformable to his antecedents. It was 
full time to put an end to the false situation ; the 
patience of every one was exhausted. 

On October 27 the President wrote categorically to 
the recalcitrant general : " And now I ask a distinct 
answer to the question — Is it your purpose not to go 
into action again till the men now being drafted in the 
States are incorporated in the old regiments ? " On 



INTERLUDE. 343 

this occasion the general replied in the negative, 
announcing at last that he was about to move. 

The next day, the 28th, we broke camp. General 
Berry being absent on account of sickness, the com- 
mand of the brigade devolved upon me. The effective 
force of the seven regiments composing the brigade was 
about three thousand four hundred men. The same 
day we crossed the Potomac, at White's Ford, between 
Conrad's Ferry and the Monocacy. The troops were 
full of ardor and good spirits. The water was cold and 
the atmosphere was not warm, but the comical inci- 
dents of the passage spread good humor over all, and 
gave rise to a great deal of laughter. Moreover, we 
stopped near the ford, and the campfires quickly dried 
the shoes and wet trousers. The baggage reached us 
the next day. 

My headquarters were on a rich farm, whose owner, 
Alfred Belt, an old Whig, had become a secessionist 
with all his family. The good man grumbled from 
morning until night about the soldiers, who, however, 
respected his barnyard and paid large prices for the 
milk, bread, and cakes which his daughter sold them. 
But he took to heart the loss of his fences, which, in 
the evening, made magnificent fires. He could not 
refrain from going continually, with a mournful air, 
to the windows, to see them blaze up. Then he would 
return to the chimney corner and seat himself in his 
old armchair, to curse the war, deplore the extinction 
of the Whig party, and demonstrate to us that Henry 
Clay would have saved the Union if he had been 
living. 

He had, under various pretexts, asked of me the per- 
mission to send some of his people beyond the line of 
our pickets, which I had refused, knowing him to be a 
man who would send exact information as to the 



344 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

strength and position of the division. Several women 
who had come to see him had been sent back to where 
they had come from. So the old secessionist had but 
a very mild regard for me. 

He had in the woods a valuable colt, on account of 
which he was very much troubled, not being able to 
send out to look for him. The second night, one of the 
advanced sentinels heard a movement of branches in 
the thicket, and a step as of some one approaching 
cautiously. "Halt! who goes there.''" cried the sen- 
tinel. No reply ; then a shadow was seen a short 
distance away. " Who goes there .■* " called our man 
for the second time, taking aim. And as the shadow 
approached without reply, he fired. The guard ran 
up and found the unfortunate colt dying, a victim 
to his ignorance of the usages of war. Imagine the 
feelings of the old man Belt, on hearing this news in 
the morning. He would have been glad to have per- 
suaded me that the government of the United States 
ought to pay him the value of the animal. But I suc- 
ceeded in convincing him that he would have to resign 
himself to pass the account of the colt to the balance 
against the horses that his grandson, then in the Con- 
federate army, must have carried away in Maryland, 
during his Antietam excursion. So that we parted 
poor friends. 

On October 31, we took the road to Leesburg. We 
supposed that the whole army must have crossed the 
Potomac. It was a mistake. With his accustomed 
slowness, McClellan took five days for that operation, 
which was accomplished only on the 2d of November. 
So the march of the division was of the slowest. We 
had to wait for the other corps, which, coming from 
beyond Harper's Ferry, had a longer distance to travel. 

The 1st of November we spent near Leesburg, on the 



INTERLUDE. 345 

Snickersville road, where we had camped the night 
before. The good people who received me in their 
little farmhouse troubled themselves as little as possi- 
ble about politics. Their house, though poor, was happy 
and joyous. The husband had so far escaped the 
Southern conscription. The children were delightful 
to see, running after their mother, who was back and 
forth laughing and blushing (for me, I suppose) to hear 
me speaking English with a French accent. I hope the 
war bore lightly on them, even to the end. 

The next morning, we marched towards the firing of 
the cannon, whose threatening voice was heard in the 
distance. The enemy, it was said, had assembled a 
considerable force five or six miles away. The First 
and Ninth Corps were with us, one commanded by 
General Reynolds, the other by General Burnside, 
under whose orders our division was placed. At night- 
fall we stopped at Mount Gilliat, in a good position, in 
the midst of a superb country, but suffering from the 
cold which was so much more piercing in that the fall- 
ing of the temperature had been sudden. 

The next day's march took us to Millville, where I was 
to come across the lowest class of the white inhabitants. 
Chance served me well in this respect. On entering 
again into Virginia, I had met a type of the rich farmer, 
selfish, egotistic, politician on occasions, more Virginian 
than American, detesting the Northern democracy 
because he was himself an aspirant to aristocracy in 
the country where the vicinity of the free States had 
driven away the planters. 

Near Leesburg I had found shelter in the house of a 
small farmer, living rather by his own labor than by 
•that of others, caring little for politics because he had 
no ambition ; a philosopher without knowing it, extend- 
ing neither his activity nor his aspirations beyond his 



346 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

house, and asking of God only to live, and to enable his 
family to live in a little comfort. 

At Millville, my shelter for the night was the dilapi- 
dated hut of one of the poor devils whom public con- 
tempt in the South designates as White Trash. This 
one bore the name of Hospital ; are there predestined 
names ? Everything about him breathed misery and 
slovenliness : the walls, the furniture, the garments. 
What furniture ! and what garments ! The moral 
qualities of my hosts were plainly on a par with their 
physical. Their ignorance was on a level with their 
poverty. Possessing nothing, they knew nothing. 
They lived an animal life, poorly supported by day's 
work on the farms, without appearing to imagine that 
there could be for them any other existence. 

These three classes were equally carried away in the 
whirlwind of the war. In the first class were found the 
instigators and ringleaders who deceived the others, 
without foreseeing themselves where they were tend- 
ing ; the second class furnished the defenders of the 
soil, dupes of political theories which they did not 
understand ; the third class, the " common herd," fur- 
nished the food for powder. 

On the 5th we passed through Middletown and White 
Plains, to camp near Salem, and on the 6th we arrived 
a few miles from Waterloo — name of sad memory. 

This march was laborious. The roads were horrible, 
for the weather had changed very much since we had 
returned to Virginia. It was now piercing cold, from 
which the men had hard work to protect themselves, as 
their clothing was in poor condition, and insufificient for 
the winter temperature. In spite of our prolonged stay 
in Maryland, the army was far from having received all 
the supplies it needed. The want of shoes was espe- 
cially felt, and during the last days T had seen many of 



INTERLUDE. 347 

the soldiers marching along laboriously in the mud, with 
remnants of shoes worn down at the heels, cracked 
open, and almost soleless. Some were barefooted ; 
but they marched on, endeavoring not to be left 
behind. 

The night was really glacial. Happily, fuel was plen- 
tiful. The great fires lighted on all sides continued to 
blaze until morning. Then the snow began to fall, at 
first in light flakes and soon in a thick whirlwind, 
whipped by continual squalls. The trees groaned, the 
ground trembled, and the men shivered. In the midst 
of the storm. General Stoneman sent for me, and, look- 
ing like a snow man, I entered the country church 
where he was quite comfortably installed with his staff. 
When I had warmed myself a little, he told me that 
the first two brigades of the division were camped in a 
forest of tall pines, which the road passed through a 
short distance away. 

" You can also go there and choose a place for your 
regiments," he added. " They will be better protected 
than in this position, where you are now." 

I mounted my horse, accompanied by an officer of my 
staff, and we found, without much trouble, a place with 
the desired conditions. But the snowstorm did not 
abate, and, the day being nearly spent, I concluded to 
see the general again on my return, to ask him to let 
me put off the changing of camp for my brigade until 
morning. 

He consented immediately, with an air which made 
me think that our advance movement was suspended. 
Why .'* I could not imagine ; but there was something 
new in the air, and something indefinable in the manner 
of the general and his staff, which struck me. 

The enigma was explained the next morning, when, 
while laying out our new camp, the news came : McClel- 



348 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Ian had been relieved from command, and replaced by 
Burnside. 

At first we could hardly believe it. We had so many 
times received news as true one day, only to be denied 
the next ! But for once the rumor was true. The 
evening before, a general officer had brought from 
Washington the following order, dated November 5 : — 

" It is ordered by the President of the United States that Major- 
General McClellan be relieved from the command of the Army of the 
Potomac, and that Major-General Burnside take command of that army." 

It was finished. The military career of General 
McClellan had come to an end. 

We may well believe that this removal was deserved. 
But, to tell the truth, although too late, it was not op- 
portune. Really it is not always enough to do a thing 
good in itself, it should also be done at the proper time. 
Now, the suitable occasion for removing General 
McClellan from the command of the army had twice 
presented itself : the first, in the month of July, after 
the disastrous failure of his campaign against Richmond, 
and the sending of an unbecoming communication to 
the President on the general policy of the government ; 
the second, in the month of October, in view of his 
manifest ill-will, when he refused to move his army, 
disobeying positive orders. Now that he had started 
to execute his plans, whatever they were, the time was 
badly chosen to supersede him, — unless the army was 
in danger of being compromised, which was not the case. 

This was the general judgment. The Copperheads of 
the North, it is true, made great hue and cry, but on 
the other hand the Southern rebels poorly disguised 
their vexation at a change which might be ruinous to 
them. As to the army, sentiments and opinions were 
divided. McClellan had there a great number of par- 
tisans, who were still ignorant of his share of the 



INTERLUDE. 349 

responsibility for the defeat of Pope, and his refusal to 
pursue and finish up Lee after the bavtle of Antietam. 
And they did not hesitate to express their disappoint- 
ment. This, without doubt, is what has given rise to 
the too generally received idea that McClellan was the 
idol of his army, and that his dismissal had given a 
great blow to the confidence and energy of his soldiers. 

This may have been true as to some generals and a 
few officers whose promotion was more dependent upon 
the favor of the general-in-chief than upon their own 
merits. But this idea was very incorrect as to the great 
body of the army, in which the popularity of McClellan, 
great in the beginning, was dimmed before Richmond, 
eclipsed after the retreat of the seven days, was only 
regained afterwards by the counteraction of Pope's 
misfortunes, and had blazed up at Antietam only to 
become clouded over during the long inaction which 
followed that victory. 

The Army of the Potomac, animated by a better 
spirit, did not make its patriotism depend on the retain- 
ing of a chief who had contributed to its reverses more 
than to its successes. The truth is that, with some 
grumbling, interested mostly, the army accepted the 
change as a man does a wife : " for better or for worse." 

Thus the general who had up to this time played the 
first role disappeared from the scene. His misfortune 
and that of the country was his sudden elevation to a 
position to which his ability was not equal. If he had 
remained at a post in accordance with his military 
abilities, for instance the command of the defences of 
Washington, it is probable that he would have filled the 
place with honor. As he was essentially an officer of 
engineers, he would have found there the best field for 
his special talents. But the success of a small affair 
well carried out, at Laurel Hill, was the means of bring- 



350 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ing to him such high fortune that he was dazzled, and, 
as it were, overwhelmed by it. So great is the distance 
between the command of a small body of troops, and 
that of a great army. 

Aside from his military ability, McClellan had not 
the burning ardor which was necessary to put an end 
to the rebellion. He wanted zeal and conviction in the 
strife. His ultra conservative opinions were full of 
sentimentality toward the erring brothers. 

The enemy was to him only an enemy in the military 
acceptance of the term. Aside from that, he appeared, 
in combating the rebellion, to be always afraid of hurt- 
ing the rebels too much, while they, for their part, 
thought they never could injure us enough. Thus he 
showed himself overflowing with consideration for them, 
even to the point of professing a respect, badly timed, 
for slavery, which had in his eyes the character of an 
inviolable institution. We are forced to believe that 
he deceived himself, even to the point of hoping to 
bring them back to the Federal Union by mild meas- 
ures ; but, with that system, the war would still be 
unfinished, or the Confederation would be definitely 
established at this time. 

Aside from his military and political role, the ex- 
commander of the Army of the Potomac is a gentleman, 
courteous in his manners, dignified in his bearing, and 
reserved in speech. For those who, at a later date, 
supported him for the Presidency, in order to have in 
the White House an accomplished gentleman, he filled, 
without doubt, that part of the programme. But the 
people, who wished, above all things, the safety of the 
Republic and the triumph of the government, demanded 
at the head of the army a general who had higher 
merits than the quahties of a gentleman and the talents 
of an eng-ineer. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FREDERICKSBURG. 

Ambrose Burnside, general commanding — Organization of grand di- 
visions — Mrs. L.'s honey — State elections — General Burnside's 
plan — The delay of the pontoons — Effect of snow — Passage of the 
Rappahannock — Doctor C.'s nerves — Battle of Fredericksburg — 
Attack of the enemy's positions on the left — Tragical episode — 
Whose fault was it? — Disasters on the right — General Burnside's 
obstinacy — Dead and wounded — Return to our camp. 

General Ambrose Burnside was but little known by 
the army the command of which had devolved upon 
him. He had achieved his reputation as commander 
of a fortunate expedition on the coast of North Caro- 
lina, where he had remained during our entire Penin- 
sular campaign. When Pope, menaced by the greater 
part of the Confederate army, awaited the reenforce- 
ments which McClellan delayed sending him day after 
day, it was Burnside who was the first to hasten to 
Alexandria, at the head of the Ninth Corps, to his 
assistance, and who immediately sent Reno's division 
to the banks of the Rapidan. So that he had belonged 
to the Army of the Potomac but two months, during 
which, as we have seen, he had commanded the right 
wing at South Mountain, and the left wing at Antie- 
tam. He was a man of fine character, honest, upright, 
full of patriotism, incapable of stooping to any intrigue, 
and always subordinating his ambition to his duty ; but 
too much inclined to be obstinate. 

A friend of McClellan, not only had he done nothing 
to supersede him, but he had already twice refused the 
honor which had just been conferred upon him rather 

351 



352 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

against his wishes. Far from presuming too much 
on his own ability, he was afraid of not being equal 
to the responsibility which devolved upon him ; but 
duty called, and he believed that he had no right to 
longer withhold the services which government de- 
manded of him. To a formal order he yielded a ready 
obedience, and thought only of doing his best. 

In order to inform himself of the position and 
strength of the different corps, the resources upon 
which he could rely, the necessities against which he 
must provide, — in a word, to put himself ati coiirant 
with the workings of so vast a machine as an 
army of a hundred thousand men, the new gen- 
eral-in-chief required a few days, during which the 
movements then under way were suspended. His 
intention was to substitute a new plan for that of his 
predecessor. To the line from Culpeper to Gordons- 
ville, which took us further and further into the inte- 
rior, he preferred that of Fredericksburg, which offered 
greater facilities for supplying the army and had the 
advantage of being more direct, calling Richmond our 
objective point. His reasons, submitted to the Pres- 
ident and General Halleck, were approved. So when 
the army moved it was to march to Fredericksburg. 

However, before giving the order, General Burnside 
made a change in the organization of the army, form- 
ing what he called grand divisions. Each of these 
grand divisions comprised two army corps. There 
were three of these, called the right, centre, and left 
grand divisions : the right was composed of the Sec- 
ond and Ninth Corps, under command of General Sum- 
ner ; the centre of the Third and Fifth Corps, 
commanded by General Hooker ; and the left of the 
First and Sixth Corps, commanded by General Franklin, 
There followed a complete change in the command- 



FREDERICKSBURG. 353 

ers of the different corps, which were now as follows : 
Second Corps, General Couch ; Ninth Corps, General 
Wilcox ; Third Corps, General Stoneman ; Fifth Corps, 
General Butterfield ; First Corps, General Reynolds ; 
Sixth Corps, General W. F. Smith. 

The formation of the grand divisions appears to have 
been, for General Burnside, a means of diminishing both 
his responsibility and the work of his staff, at the same 
time giving a higher position to the three principal 
corps commanders, whose services might, eventually, 
put them on the road to the command of the army. 
But it was a complication, the positive inconveniences 
of which much exceeded the doubtful advantages. So 
that the innovation did not survive the originator. 
The grand divisions were abandoned when Burnside 
gave up the command of the army to one of the gener- 
als for whom he had created them. 

The consequences of these changes even reached me. 
General Berry, though still ailing, having courageously 
resumed his post, and General Birney being perma- 
nently assigned to the command of the division, T was 
transferred, with my regiment, to the Second Brigade, 
where I replaced him with a provisional rank. My 
new comman^ was composed, like the first, of seven 
regiments : three New York, the Fifty-fifth, the For- 
tieth, and the Thirty-eighth ; two Pennsylvania, the 
Fifty-seventh and the Ninety-ninth ; two Maine, the 
Third and the Fourth. They were in the some condi- 
tion as the others. One-half of the men lacked over- 
coats, or blankets, or shoes. Their incomplete uni- 
forms bore but too strong evidence of the hard labors 
of the summer. It must be believed that all the 
government storehouses were empty at that time, since 
every effort to supply our needs before commencing 
our march was useless. 



354 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

What made the soldier most angry was not the fact 
of having to undergo privations, to which he was more 
or less hardened, but to read every day in the journals 
that the army was abundantly provided with every- 
thing, living in a comfort which left nothing to be 
desired. If the optimistic writers who composed these 
fancy pictures had been put for a moment on our regi- 
men, they would very soon have changed their tone. 
Without speaking of the worn-out condition of the 
uniforms, they might have related that, on account of 
not finding at White Plains the rations which were to 
have been there, our wagons had been compelled to go 
as far as Conrad Ferry for them ; and that during 
these delays the soldiers had to go without their 
rations, to the great sorrow of the neighboring farmers, 
whose barnyards were very rapidly depopulated. Un- 
happily for them, the inflexible Andrew Porter was 
no longer there to let them enjoy a happy inviolability, 
and the provost guards were no longer put exclusively 
to their service. 

Nevertheless, as the order to respect property as 
much as possible was still in force, the Virginians, even 
the most hostile, took advantage of the least pretext to 
demand indemnity, out of all proportion to the losses 
they had or had not received. 

I remember that at Oakwood the provost of the 
Third Brigade, which I commanded at that time, re- 
ported to me that the soldiers belonging to the division 
had carried off a few bee-hives from some houses close 
by ; he had driven off the marauders, and placed two 
guards to protect the farm from any further depreda- 
tions. The next morning, as I started off at the head 
of my brigade, a countryman stopped me on the road, 
to present me with a bill of damage, which I refused to 
approve, for the simple reason that the complainant could 



FREDERICKSBURG. 355 

not point out to which brigade or regiment the depre- 
dators belonged, and besides I had neither the time 
nor means to verify his account. 

Eight months after, on our return from Gettysburg, the 
War Department sent me a voluminous claim addressed 
to it, in which the bee-hives were estimated at some- 
thing like thirty or forty times their value. A report 
on the subject was asked for from me. 

I concluded as follows : — 

" I have no way now of ascertaining the amount of dam- 
age, but I consider the claim as an enormous exaggera- 
tion. And on this point I have the honor to call the 
attention of the War Department to the fact that, while 
our enemies are fighting the government of the United 
States, their families (whom we have constantly en- 
deavored to protect against wanton depredations) pursue 
a war of speculation against the United States treasury, 
under all kinds of pretexts. Hardly one can be found 
who, having lost a bundle of hay or a panel of fence, 
does not try to get twenty times its value, from the 
very government they are endeavoring to destroy. 

" As to a search, to discover the guilty persons in the 
special case referred to me, — in order to show its im- 
possibility, it suffices to say that the brigade which I 
then and still have the honor to command numbered 
at that time more than three thousand men in its ranks, 
while to-day it can hardly put twelve hundred in line. 
The remainder is either in the hospital, disabled, or 
buried on the battle-fields of Fredericksburg, Chancel- 
lorsville, or Gettysburg. Let us, then, charge up the 
honey to the account of the glorious dead, and let their 
loyal blood wash out the trace of Mrs. L.'s rebel 
honey. 

" I have the honor to recommend that the claim be 
disallowed." 



356 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

How much money the government of the United 
States has thus too generously paid to its enemies! 

We were still near Waterloo when the papers brought 
the news more discouraging to the army than all the 
privations it had been compelled to undergo. The 
pseudo-democratic party had prevailed in the elections 
in several States. By force of agitating, of intriguing, 
and inveighing against all the measures taken by gov- 
ernment, and, above all. by hypocritically complaining 
that the war was not conducted with sufificient vigor, 
the Coppcr/icads]\3.d. succeeded in deceiving the people, 
and getting hold of the power in New York and several 
other States. 

The Governor-elect of the Empire State was Horatio 
Seymour, an old political stager worn in the party har- 
ness. His accession to power would be marked only by 
the evil which he would do, or would attempt to do, 
while infusing into the administration of the State a 
fault-finding opposition to the federal government, — 
an opposition soon to result in bloody riots. Already, 
as soon as the election was over, the party hacks had 
thrown off the mask and uncovered their batteries. 
Men of tainted character, men of disappointed ambi- 
tions, paid speakers, hastened, in assemblies, to mark 
out most alarming programmes. Many loyal men said 
at the time, on reading their audacious plans, that the 
Republic was lost, and that the war would end only in 
a shameful compromise, or even in a peace which would 
be that of dismemberment. They were wrong. Varro 
did not despair of the safety of the Roman Republic, 
and the American Republic had not had its battle of 
Cannae. 

The plan of General Burnside has been more severely 
criticised than faithfully explained. If it failed, it was 
not because it was poorly conceived, but because it was 



FREDERICKSBURG. 357 

poorly carried out, as will be seen. In the first place, 
the Fredericksburg line offered such manifest advan- 
tages over that of Gordonsville that all the corps com- 
manders were unanimous on this point. The latter 
route was impossible. The further one advanced in 
that direction, the greater the difficulties which would 
accumulate against us ; the Confederates, menacing our 
too extended line of supplies, would have been able to 
break it at some point, to carry away or destroy some 
trains, and intercept our communications vi^ith Wash- 
ington, or fully one-half of the army would have been 
employed to assure the subsistence of the other half, 
paralyzed in its offensive movements by that fact. One 
is led to ask how the same general who refused to 
cross the Potomac, because he could not supply his 
army at Winchester, pretended afterwards that he 
could subsist it at Gordonsville. No ; if McClellan 
had led us to that point, we would have returned much 
more quickly than we had advanced. 

By way of Fredericksburg, our base of operations at 
Acquia Creek was much more accessible, besides being 
easier to guard. On the other hand, our line of opera- 
tions was more direct, and permitted a more rapid 
advance on Richmond, while offering facilities for 
supply by water, such as could not be found on the 
Gordonsville line. 

It has been stated, in favor of the latter line, that 
McClellan expected to surprise the scattered forces of 
Lee, cut them in two, and fight them in detail. This 
is easier to say than to do. I, for my part, do not think 
General Lee was the man to allow himself to be taken 
unawares in this manner. At all events, it was cer- 
tainly easier for him to concentrate his forces at Cul- 
peper than at Fredericksburg. Jackson, who was still 
in the Shenandoah valley, would have joined him 



35^ FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

promptly behind the Rapiclan, where we could be held 
in check, without very much trouble, even by troops 
inferior in number. 

From Warrenton, where our army lay, we could reach 
P"redericksburg before the enemy and get possession, 
without a battle, of the city and the heights, which a 
month later were so fatal to us. And if Longstreet 
hurried from Culpeper, to put himself across our road, 
he could easily be crushed before Jackson could have 
had the necessary time to come to his assistance. 

The objection that all that was necessary for Lee to 
do, to force us to retire, was to march on Warrenton, is 
no more conclusive. In fact, if it had been so, why did 
he not do it .-' Because, in the condition in which he 
found his army, it was absolutely impossible for him to 
attempt any new offensive operations against Washing- 
ton, and Burnside knew it very well. Besides his ad- 
versary was too cunning to risk his army in a simple 
demonstration, which would have left open to us the 
road to Richmond. 

Everything, then, was well considered in the plan of 
General Burnside, everything except that which caused 
its failure, — a fatal delay in the arrival of the pon- 
toons.. 

I have no charges to make against any one, in inquir- 
ing upon whom the responsibility for these fatal delays 
ought to fall. It is sufficient to state that General 
Sumner was at Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg, on 
the 17th, and that the first shipment of pontoons did 
not arrive until the 24th. Seven days left to the enemy 
to concentrate his forces and prepare his defences ! 
One may imagine how well he profited by the delay. 
Never was a week better taken advantage of. Not only 
did the enemy mass his forces in our front, but he began 
to cover with a double and triple line of intrenchments 



FRED ERICKSBURG. 359 

those heights which we might have occupied without 
resistance, and which now stopped our way. 

Sumner, who, on his arrival, had found in front of him 
only a squadron of cavalr}' and a battery which he 
promptly reduced to silence, had proposed to seize the 
position, by crossing at a ford which he knew of. But 
a single rainy night was enough to render the ford im- 
passable, and the general-in-chief had wisely refused to 
expose one part of his army, without the means, in case 
of necessity, of sustaining it with the remainder. The 
double experience of Fair Oaks and Gaines' Mill would, 
in that respect, ser\-e as a warning to him. 

In addition, the expected supplies were no less de- 
layed than the bridge equipage. General Burnside 
wrote in a despatch to General Halleck, dated the 22d : 
— " Another very important part of the plan proposed 
by me was that all the disposable wagons at Washing- 
ton should be loaded with bread and light rations, and 
sent immediately here, so as to furnish to the army 
from five to sLx days' rations. These trains could have 
marched in perfect security, protected as they would be 
by the ver}- movement of the army." 

And, after explaining to him to how great an extent 
his plans were compromised by these divers mishaps, 
he added : — 

" You can easily see that much delay in the general 
movement must result, and I think it my duty, in sub- 
mitting the facts to you, to say that I can no longer 
promise a probable success, with the same confidence 
that I had when I supposed that all parts of my plan 
would be promptly executed." — The problem was, in 
fact, an entirely different one. The question now was 
to force the passage of the river under the enemy's fire, 
and to carrv' by assault the formidable position in which 
he was intrenched. 



360 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The little city of Fredericksburg is situated on the 
banks of the Rappahannock, in a plain extending to a 
line of hills, which close in to the river, a short distance 
above the village of Falmouth, lying on the opposite 
bank. Below the city, these hills, deeply cut by a broad 
ravine, make a wide curve away from the river, to a 
point where they terminate abruptly to give passage to 
Massaponax Creek, a stream which crosses the plain at 
its widest point, to empty into the Rappahannock. 

The north bank of the river, behind which our army 
had camped since the 22d of November, by its height 
commanded completely the city and the plain. The 
city was thus placed between the two armies, and could 
be destroyed by the artillery fire of either. The enemy 
had also posted several regiments of sharpshooters in 
the houses and along the bank of the river, to oppose 
as much as possible the laying of bridges. 

General Burnside's first plan had been to force a pas- 
sage several miles below. With this object, a number 
of regiments had been sent to open roads through the 
woods to Skenker's Neck. The enemy got wind of it, 
and immediately sent the division of General D. H. 
Hill to oppose it. As the river was quite broad at that 
point, and presented much greater difficulties in pres- 
ence of a force disputing the passage, the project was 
abandoned, and Burnside resolved to meet in front the 
obstacle which he could not turn. 

During the preparations made necessary by this 
dangerous determination, the return of General Ward, 
retained in the command of the brigade, sent me back 
to the head of my regiment. General Hooker, under 
whose orders the Third and Fifth Corps were placed, 
had asked for me the grade of brigadier-general. But 
military services did not, at that time, suffice to deter- 
mine promotions. Political intrigues had much greater 



FREDERICKSBURG. 36 1 

weight, and the recommendations of a few members of 
Congress had much more influence than that of the 
generals. 

The weather was very unfavorable for a winter cam- 
paign. The cold was severe, and the necessary clothing 
arrived but slowly, and in insufficient quantities. A 
few recruits also came to us ; but what were twenty 
new-comers to a battalion which lacked five or six hun- 
dred men .-* 

On December 5, the snow fell the whole day. The 
ground was soon covered to a depth of several inches. 
The pine trees, where my regiment was camped, bent 
under the weight. The young trees, curving over, 
formed arcades above the tents where the men were 
lying silently, rolled in their blankets. The fires were 
extinguished. Under the mantle of snow, shaken 
off from time to time, the sentinels looked like plaster 
statues half confounded with the tree trunks. One 
would have said that Death, not satisfied with the 
bloody part reserved to him, wished to bury us all 
under the same winding-sheet. 

Thus, no trial was wanting to us : the heat of the 
torrid zone on the Peninsula ; arctic cold in the 
north of Virginia. We tried to console ourselves 
with the thought that on the hills across the river 
our enemies, coming from the South, suffered more 
than we. 

On the 7th, the cold still continued sharp and biting. 
The snow, with an icy crust, sparkled in the sunlight 
like diamond dust. The two following days all drill 
was suspended, to enable the men to install themselves 
more comfortably. They began immediately to build 
little huts, saying perhaps they were going into winter 
quarters. But on the evening of the loth the order 
arrived to hold ourselves ready to march the next morn- 



362 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ing. "This time," it was said, "the ball is going to 
begin." 

The night was full of suppressed agitation, and of 
those distant rumors which denote preparations for 
battle. The fires remained burning longer than 
usual. In different directions was heard the rolling 
of wagons going to the rear, and cannon going to 
the front. Confused noises indicated the march 
of regiments changing position. Their bayonets 
flashed through the obscurity, lighted up by the 
bivouac fires. 

We were awakened at daybreak by the sound of the 
cannon. Every one was quickly on foot. The men 
said, while putting on their haversacks, " Well, the 
fight will come off to-day." And they hastened to 
swallow their hot coffee. 

At half-past seven our division drew near the river 
and was held in reserve behind the Stafford Hills, 
which were crowned by a hundred and forty-five pieces 
of artillery. Under their protection and favored by 
a thick fog, three bridges were commenced in front 
of the city, and two more one or two miles further 
down. The latter, intended for the left grand divis- 
ion, were finished without much opposition. But work 
on the others was stopped by the deadly fire of the 
Mississippi sharpshooters. The artillery not being 
able to dislodge them from the houses, although the 
bombardment began to burn the city, two Massachu- 
setts regiments and one Michigan, who had volun- 
teered for the dangerous work, were sent over in the 
pontoon boats. In spite of a terrible fire, they suc- 
ceeded in landing on the opposite bank, and soon swept 
before them the Mississippians, part of whom were 
taken prisoners. These bridges were then finished 
without hindrance, and our heads of columns began to 



FREDERICKSBURG. 363 

occupy the city, and debouch on the plain, though too 
late to push the operations further that day. 

On the 1 2th the different corps continued to cross 
the Rappahannock, Sumner on the right, Franklin on 
the left. The two corps commanded by Hooker, form- 
ing the centre, were the last to cross. On both sides 
the sharpshooters were exchanging fires, and the artil- 
lery duel continued; no serious action occurred. 

At four o'clock in the evening, the Third Corps hav- 
ing received an order to reenforce the left wing, we 
went to join General Franklin, under whose orders we 
were temporarily placed. We reached a little valley 
ending at the bridge we were about to cross, and 
halted there for the night, in a thick pine wood, which 
the axe soon cleared out. Such was the skill of our 
men, and especially of the lumbermen who abounded in 
the Maine regiments, that the trees invariably fell in 
the desired direction, and that, although we were 
formed in column by battalions, with but fifteen feet 
interval, not a stack of muskets was struck by the fall 
of these giants of the forest near the fires they were 
destined to feed. 

On that day I witnessed a very curious example of 
the effect that cannon fire can produce on a nervous 
temperament and a diseased imagination. Shortly 
before there had come to the regiment a civil surgeon, 
whom the attraction of a fixed salary, in want of a 
profitable practice, had, doubtless, led to accept a mili- 
tary commission. Dr. C was married, and the 

father of a family. He had, it seemed, but a very 
vague idea of what he was undertaking, for, on arriving 
at the camp, he found himself living without fire, in a 
tent covered with snow ; where, to make himself com- 
fortable, he had but a wood fire in the open air, by 
which he roasted on one side while freezing on the 



364 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Other ; and where, shivering and hungry, he had to 
content himself with a meagre pittance, less refreshing 
than repugnant to his disordered stomach. So the 
goodman got to thinking with bitterness of the de- 
lights of the domestic hearth, too lightly abandoned ; 
of the rocking-chair near the fireside ; of his soft bed ; 
of the breakfast-table, where, in the morning, the buck- 
wheat cakes smoked. These bitter regrets troubled 
his sleep and his appetite ; but it was far worse when 
the roaring of the cannon announced the prelude of 
a battle. 

The bombardment of Fredericksburg had made for 
some hours a great racket ; but our division was in re- 
serve, and not a shot had fallen near us. The poor 
doctor was not the less in a pitiable condition. Livid 
as a dying person, trembling like a leaf, he shook at 
each detonation, as if his long legs were about to give 
way under him. *' Colonel," said he, with a wild air, 
" I must go away, or I am a dead man ! " Insensible 
to reason as to raillery, hardly knowing what he said, 
he repeated incessantly : " I am a dead man ; I am a 
dead man." I never saw such utter demoralization. 
At last, being able to get nothing from him but this 
mournful refrain, I sent him to some 'hospital in the 
rear, where, shortly after, he received his discharge, for 
physical disability. 

The 13th of December, 1862, was a day as radiant as 
a fete day. The air was soft, not a cloud in the sky. 
The sun did not trouble himself with our affairs. He 
rose in all his glory, lighting up with superb indiffer- 
ence the two armies in battle array. 

Our brigade was already massed on the summit of the 
hill, arms stacked, awaitifig its turn to cross the river. 
The men filled their canteens at a brook running to our 
right. Some of them, careless of the great slaughter 



FREDERICKSBURG. 365 

preparing for them, with loud cries, were chasing the 
frightened rabbits through the bushes. ^ 

From this point the view was splendid. At our feet, 
the river was spanned by two bridges of boats, across 
which defiled, on one the infantry, and on the other the 
cavalry and the artillery. We looked at the regiments, 
as they marched out on the plain to take their place in 
order of battle in front of the enemy's positions, which 
arose by steps, at the back of the picture. On the left, 
the view extended without hindrance to the horizon, 
hidden in the luminous vapor of the rising sun, and 
spotted with little white clouds, the nature of which 
we well knew. It was Franklin, who was feeling the 
enemy, and throwing some shells at Stuart's cavalry. 
In the clearness of the morning, we could easily dis- 
tinguish in that direction the crackling of the skir- 
mishers' shots, emphasized by the firing of the cannon. 
And on the right, a projecting hill concealing Fred- 
ericksburg from our view, we were able to see only the 
steeples. But further on clearly appeared above the 
fog a line of heights, covered with retrenchments, and 
bristling with cannon. 

I confess it ; after having long examined with the 
aid of a field glass that formidable arc, of which the 
river formed the chord, and where the army was enter- 
ing so audaciously into battle ; when to us, in our 
turn, came the order to descend into the arena, I 
thought involuntarily of the gladiators of old, entering 
into the amphitheatre. Ave, CcBsar ! Moritnri te sa- 
lutant ! If we had had there our Caesar, we also would 
have been able to exclaim : "Those about to die salute 
thee ! " 

On clearing the bridge, we turned immediately to 
the left, marching obliquely towards the old Richmond 
road, which cuts the plain in two in its length, and is 



366 FOUR YEARS WI'l'II THE PUTOMAC ARMY. 

itself cut at a right angle by a crossroad. This road 
led directly from the Smithfield farm, situated on the 
bank of the river, to that portion of the heights com- 
prised between the ravine of which I have spoken and 
the point at whose foot runs the Massaponax. It was 
about noon when we crossed the intersection of the 
two roads, to deploy in line of battle in a large field 
lying in front of the main road, and to the left of the 
crossroad. Hooker's old division, commanded now by 
General Sickles, did not follow ours. It was to rejoin 
us later on. 

This deploying appeared to me to be done with more 
ostentation than ability. But, perhaps, it was specially 
desired to draw the enemy's attention on us, who were 
only in the second line, and thus divert it from the 
attacking column, composed of Meade's division of the 
First Corps. In that case we undoubtedly succeeded, 
judging by the quantity of projectiles we received there, 
standing with arms at rest. The fire was then very 
lively at our extreme left, in the direction of the Mas- 
saponax. From that side, an attack had been made 
against us, which Doubleday's division was occupied 
in repelling. We awaited the result, before attacking 
the intrenchments in our front. 

Soon our guns, put in position in open view on a 
slight undulation of the ground, begin to thunder. 
The shells fall with great noise in the Confederate 
lines, among the trees, which are torn by the bul- 
lets. Several batteries are posted there, which hasten 
to reply in the same manner, one especially, the 
strongest and the most dangerous for our column to 
attack. It is important to silence it. So it becomes 
the principal target for our guns. A veritable ava- 
lanche of iron whistles, shrieks, bursts, and seems to 
be about to destroy everything at that point. Yet the 



FREDERICKSBURG. 367 

battery keeps on replying behind a curtain of smoke, 
crossed by flashes which follow one another without 
slackening. All at once, a column of fire springs into 
the air, and spreads out like a sheaf, white and red 
above the trees. A violent detonation shakes the 
ground. Hurrah ! Whether magazine or caisson, the 
ammunition of the battery has blown up. Its fire 
grows languid and ceases. Now, forward the infantry ! 

At this moment, the order was given us to pile our 
knapsacks on the other side of the main road. It 
would have been much better to have done that where 
we were. We would not have been obliged to retire at 
the very time when we should have advanced. In fact, 
we had scarcely left our position, when a fierce mus- 
ketr}- fire burst forth from the railroad, which ran along 
the foot of the hill, and where the enemy had formed 
his first line of intrenchments. The attack had com- 
menced. 

Meade's division was composed exclusively of Penn- 
sylvania regiments. It advanced on a point of woods, 
which extended in front of the line, entered into it with- 
out stopping, and, in an instant, swept away everything 
that it found there. The First Brigade, which was in 
front, advanced then upon the railroad, gallantly carried 
it, drove back a few of the enemy's regiments, who fled 
in disorder, and ascended the wooded slope at their 
heels, and reached the crest over a second line of works, 
where the question now was to establish themselves 
firmly. But there it found itself in front of an open 
space where General Jackson had massed his reserve. 
Welcomed by a terrible infantry fire in front and a 
cross fire of case shot from a battery, it was forced to 
halt and soon to fall back precipitately. The Second 
Brigade, attacked on both flanks, advanced with dil^- 
culty. The First carried it with it on its retreat. The 



368 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Third, which had scarcely crossed the railroad, did not 
hold long, and the whole column fell back pell-mell out 
of the woods into which it had advanced with so firm a 
step. 

During this time our division had taken its formQ|" 
position. We heard the rolling fire in the woods ; we 
saw the white smoke rising above the trees, but we did 
not know what was happening behind the curtain, 
when I received an order to take three regiments to 
the other side of the crossroad. There we found, un- 
supported, a battery which we must defend. The 
Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania was placed between the 
road and the guns, the Third Maine to the right of 
these last, and the Fifty-fifth New York a little further 
along. 

Our line, thus formed in open field, three or four hun- 
dred yards from the enemy, rested its left on the road 
which separated it from the remainder of the division. 
Its right was completely in the air, and halted in the 
position vacated by Gibbon's division of the First Corps. 
The latter had advanced to attack the enemy at the 
same time with Meade. But the attack had been made 
too slowly ; instead of rushing upon the railroad as the 
Pennsylvanians had done, the First Brigade had stopped 
a short distance away to reply, by a useless fire, to the 
deadly volleys of the Confederates. The Second stopped 
in the same manner. The Third, however, advancing 
in column to the right of the two others, charged the 
works with the bayonet and carried them, after a short 
but sharp resistance. — It went no further. It had lost 
precious time, and Meade's advance was already driven 
back from the summit of the hill. 

When we came to take position in line with the bat- 
tery, a few regiments of Gibbon's division still held on 
near the railroad, but, it was plainly seen, without any 



FREDERICKSBURG. 369 

advantage. Under these circumstances, the general 
himself being wounded, the line began to melt away, 
and ended by breaking. It was a singular sight, though 
not encouraging. The soldiers who were retiring from 
the fight crossed the plain to our right singly or in 
groups. It did not in the least resemble a flight. They 
marched deliberately, with their guns on their shoulders, 
quickening the step, but not running, to get out of 
reach of the balls. Convinced of the uselessness of 
longer effort, and seeing that the attack had failed, 
they retired so as not to sacrifice their lives uselessly. 
In one word, they had had enough of it. 

Apparently, there was nothing to do but to get ready 
for the counter-stroke. A rebel battalion having ad- 
vanced in front of us, for an instant I thought it was 
about to attack my three regiments. But it was merely 
a demonstration, which the fire of my skirmishers was 
enough to check. It was a little further along that the 
effort of the enemy was really made against our centre. 
In the position I occupied I was admirably placed to 
observe all the incidents above the two long hedges 
which lined the road. 

Meade's division had scarcely returned, running like 
a herd of buffalo, when behind it Early's (Confederate) 
division came out of the woods like a band of wolves. 
They had descended the slope at a rapid pace, and ad- 
vanced in a confused mass without troubling themselves 
to reform their ranks. Among the first I still see an 
officer on horseback, shaking his hat at arm's length and 
crying in a harsh voice : " Forward ! Forward ! " 

Immediately, no longer paying attention to the ene- 
my's batteries, which were pouring on them a shower of 
projectiles, our artillerymen turned their guns on the 
charging mass, upon whom the balls ricocheted, the 
shells burst, and the canister poured. Their elan was 



370 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

weakened, but they still advanced, hoping to capture the 
guns. At this time an infantry fire opened on them, 
before which they hesitated. At this instant, Birney 
threw upon them the four regiments of the brigade 
Ward had kept with him, the Thirty-eighth and the 
Fortieth New York, the Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania 
and the Fourth Maine, supported by the brigades of 
Berry and Robinson. From the style of their charge 
Kearney's men were recognized. 

On seeing them advance with closed ranks, the ene- 
my halted, endeavoring to correct his line to receive 
them. But, being in the open field, the advantage of 
his intrenchments was lost. He had already paid so 
dearly for having left them that the temptation to 
return was too strong to be resisted. He fell back 
without waiting the shock, and the men, turning their 
backs on us, ran to find their first position. 
• On our side, we should have been satisfied to rest 
there, the object of the charge having been fully accom- 
plished. But the regiments were already in motion. 
They wished to obtain a more decisive success, by 
getting possession of the railroad. While the right 
pursued the flying enemy into the woods where they 
had disappeared, the left found itself suddenly halted by 
a deep ditch, concealed by the high grass. An increase 
of the fire proved immediately that the enemy awaited 
them there. Meanwhile, our men, not being able to 
pass the ditch by a leap, hesitated. Some jumped into 
it, and stopped there to take breath ; others fell killed 
or wounded, while endeavoring to get out of it. The 
officers on horseback galloped right and left encourag- 
ing their men, and looking for a crossing which did not 
exist. 

Of course, the enemy had, in his turn, concentrated 
the fire of his artillery on this point. The place was 



FREDERICKSBURG. 37 1 

not tenable. In a very short time everything which 
was not in the ditch would be swept away. They must 
get back in any way possible, by parts of regiments and 
by companies. The right did the same, having fared 
no better in the woods. 

Two-thirds of those who had made the charge in the 
four regiments of our brigade did not answer to roll- 
call. How many remained in the ditch watching for a 
chance to escape, we did not know. What we did know 
was that we had left a great many wounded or dead in 
the dry grass. Amongst the wounded, we counted 
Colonel Campbell of the Fifty-seventh Pennsylvania 
(he was supposed to be mortally wounded, but he re- 
covered) ; Lieutenant-Colonel Gessner, commanding the 
Fortieth New York ; Colonel Leidy of the Ninety- 
ninth Pennsylvania ; — among the dead : General Jack- 
son of the Pennsylvania Division ; Colonel Gilluly of 
the Fifth Michigan ; Major Patcher of the Fourth 
Maine. The major of the Seventeenth Maine must be 
included in the list, having succumbed later under the 
amputation of the hip joint. And how many more, 
captains and lieutenants ! 

At the moment when these remnants of regiments 
reformed behind the batteries, a horrible thing happened 
on the very field of battle, where there were already 
horrors enough. The cannonade had set the high grass 
on fire at several points, and the flame, quickened by 
light currents of air, extended rapidly on all sides. 
Despairing cries were heard. They were the uJnfortu- 
nate wounded left lying on the ground and caught by 
the flames. Through the smoke, they were seen exert- 
ing themselves in vain efforts to flee, half rising up, 
falling back overcome by pain, rolling on their broken 
limbs, grasping around them at the grass red with their 
blood, and at times perishing in the embrace of the 



3/2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

flames. They were between the lines, which would 
perhaps soon close in action, and no one could help 
them. 

This was the last episode of that bloody day. It is 
not difficult to see that it might have been better man- 
aged. To dislodge the enemy from his positions, an 
attack en masse would not have been too much ; a 
partial attack was not enough. The fault was, after 
having put fifty thousand men under the command of 
Franklin, that is about half the army, to restrict his 
action to one single attempt, for carrying out which 
the means were out of all proportion to the result ex- 
pected. 

The instructions sent to him on the morning of the 
battle were — "The general commanding directs that 
you keep your whole command in position for a rapid 
movement down the old Richmond road, and you will 
send out at once a division, at least, to pass below 
Smithfield, to seize, if possible, the heights near Cap- 
tain Hamilton's farm on this side of the Massaponax ; 
taking care to keep it well supported, its line of retreat 
open." 

On one hand, " to hold three army corps ready for a 
turning movement on the enemy's right ; " on the other, 
"to send against the front of the enemy at least one or 
two divisions ; " — ^what was it, if not a decisive manoeuvre 
prepared for by a false attack .'* General Franklin so 
understood it. Any other general would have done the 
same. And yet he was blamed, at a later date, for not 
having ordered his troops forward en masse to carry the 
heights, as if he had not obeyed literally the orders that 
he had received. The responsibility for the want of 
success of the left wing does not rest on him. 

It was much worse with the right wing. On that 
side, the heights were free from trees ; everything that 



FREDERICKSBURG. 373 

passed there was open to view. There could be clearly 
distinguished, first, a heavy wall, that appeared to be 
supported by an interior slope, and behind which was 
seen a continuous row of gun barrels ; a little higher 
up, a line of rifle-pits shown by its covering of earth 
half way up the hill ; finally a third line of defence 
on the top of the hill, and in all the lines, numerous 
batteries where the mouths of the guns were seen in 
the embrasures. The crest projecting furthest into the 
plain was directly in front of Fredericksburg, at the 
end of a broad road, in a straight line with which and 
closing the perspective was an imposing mansion with 
a Greek facade. It was the Marie house, which, from 
its advanced position, commanded a view of the defences, 
of which it formed the centre. A perilous advantage, 
which on that day was the cause of its destruction, 
lictween the line of hills and the city there was noth- 
ing on the plain but a few small huts. 

If there were ever a position which could be con- 
sidered impregnable, this was certainly the one. And 
yet this was the very point where General Burn side 
had decided to make his principal attack. Fatal rash- 
ness, whose consequences could be only disaster. For 
when the left wing was unsuccessful in carrying a dififi- 
cult position, what could the right do against impossi- 
bilities .■* 

No general deliberately and with cold blood sends his 
troops to a useless slaughter. We must believe, then, 
that the commander-in-chief did not know the actual 
state of affairs. Otherwise, he would have taken differ- 
ent measures, the simplest of which appeared to be to 
cross the Rappahannock a short distance above Freder- 
icksburg, when it was evident that the enemy was there 
too strongly fortified. The mere fact of our presence 
on his left would have been enough to cause him to 



374 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

abandon immediately a position threatened in reverse — 
as happened at the opening of the following campaign. 
But the determination was taken. What we could have 
gained by manoeuvring, we were about to attempt to 
carry by main force. 

General Sumner was ordered to make the attempt. 
His instructions were to attack as strongly as possible, 
but with part of his force. He was directed " to push 
a column of a division or more along the plank and 
telegraph roads between Fredericksburg and the Marie 
house, in order to seize the heights in rear of the town." 
Sumner sent forward his two divisions in accordance 
with his orders ; French's and Hancock's, both belong- 
ing to the Second Corps. 

At a later date, before the committee on the conduct 
of the war, he testified as follows : " There was line 
upon line of the fortifications in two or three tiers. If 
we had carried the first line, we could not have held it, 
because the second line was much stronger and com- 
manded it. Behind that there were, between the hill 
tops, great masses of infantry, and if we had reached 
the summit we would have been obliged to fight these 
masses of fresh troops and their batteries." But an 
order is an order, and must be obeyed. 

Let us hurry on to the catastrophe. 

French's division charged first. Scarcely had it ap- 
peared above the rise of land behind which it had 
formed in column of attack, when it was cut to pieces 
by a hail of shell and shrapnel from all directions. It 
advanced, notwithstanding, leaving the ground covered 
with the dead and wounded. Reaching a point near 
the stone wall, a murderous musketry fire struck it and 
threw it back mutilated, cut to pieces, destroyed. 

Hancock's division advanced in its turn. The same 
carnage from the artillery, the same destruction from 



FREDERICKSBURG. 375 

the musketry fire, the same negative result. The first 
line of intrenchments had not been attained. The dead 
bodies of our men, twenty or thirty paces from the 
stone wall, marked the extreme point reached. The 
result : four thousand men lying on the field. 

The trial was conclusive. Four thousand men struck 
down in a quarter of an hour was mournful testimony 
to that effect. Was it not full time to stop the 
slaughter.'' Unhappily, the want of success in the 
attack, instead of leading the general-in-chief to wise 
reflections, -excited in him only a blind rage, similar to 
that which leads the enraged bull to attack the locomo- 
tive. An eye-witness, Mr. Swinton, at that time cor- 
respondent of the New York Times, relates that Gen- 
eral Burnside, walking back and forth along the high 
bank of the Rappahannock, and looking out upon the 
opposite heights, cried out vehemently : "Those heights 
must be carried to-night ! " And Hooker, held in re- 
serve till then with the Fifth Corps, received the order 
to attack in his turn. 

He had left there with him, of his two corps, but two 
divisions of the Fifth Corps. Two had been sent the 
evening before to reenforce Franklin. "These," he 
said in making his report of this battle, " were my 
favorite divisions, for one of them I had formed myself, 
and the other had been commanded by Kearney. I 
knew them better than any others in my command." 
Looked at prosaically, this favorable opinion on the part 
of the general would have brought us that day more 
honor than profit if we had been with him. A third of 
his divisions had gone to relieve General Howard above 
Fredericksburg. A fourth was on the road to reenforce 
General Sturgis. The last two immediately crossed the 
river and passed through the city. 

General Hooker was a fighter, as every one knows. 



3/6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

He went in gladly where there were blows to receive, 
provided lie was able to return them. But, when he 
saw with his own eyes the character of the enterprise 
intrusted to Tiini, he understood quickly how it would 
infallibly result. He took upon himself to suspend the 
attack, and sent one of his aids, to ask that it should not 
be made at that point. The reply was given, to attack 
in the same place. Still hoping that the gencral-in-chief 
would yield to evidence, and desiring, above all things, 
to save the lives of so many brave men, which would 
be so uselessly sacrificed, Hooker himself hurried with 
the utmost speed to Burnside ; but nothing could affect 
the obstinate irritation of the latter. 

Let us now give the words of General Hooker. " I 
then returned and sent in advance all the disposable 
artillery I could find in the city, to demolish the 
enemy's works. I proceeded as I would have done 
against fortifications, and endeavored to make a breach 
large enough to give passage to a forlorn hope. It 
seemed to me that before that the attack had been 
made on a too extended line, and not enough concen- 
trated. I sent two batteries to the left of the road, at 
a distance of four hundred yards from the point I was 
to attack, and on the right I placed some sections of 
batteries, at a distance of five or si.x hundred yards 
from the same point. All these pieces were fired with 
rapidity until sundown, but without apparent effect 
upon the rebels or their works. 

" During the latter part of the cannonade, I had given 
the order to General Humphreys to form his division 
as an assaulting column, under the shelter of a roll of 
the ground. When the artillery fire ceased, I gave the 
signal to attack. General Humphreys' men took off 
their knapsacks, their haversacks, and their overcoats. 
They received the order to advance with unloaded mus- 



FREDERICKSBURG. 377 

kets, for they had not time either to load or fire. At 
the command, they charged with the greatest impetu- 
osity. They ran hurrahing, and I felt encouraged by 
the great ardor with which they were animated. 

" The head of General Humphreys' column reached 
a point about fifteen or twenty paces from the stone 
wall which formed the advance line of the rebels, and 
was then driven back as quickly as it had come. The 
time taken was probably not fifteen minutes, and it left 
behind seventeen hundred and sixty men out of four 
thousand." 

Was that enough .'* No. General Burnside had 
butted against the obstacle. He even yet thought only 
of either breaking it in pieces or being utterly broken 
by it himself. In the evening he passed along our 
position on the right (he relates this himself). He 
mingled with the ofificers and soldiers, and recognized 
amongst them a decided opposition to the renewal of 
the attack the next morning. He returned a kittle 
before daybreak to his headquarters, and gave the 
order to General Sumner to form the Ninth Corps in 
columns by regiments. These regiments, advancing 
rapidly, one after the other, must carry the stone wall 
and the lower batteries, throw the enemy back into his 
second line, etc. The order was carried out, but at 
the hour when the signal should have been given Sum- 
ner reported at headquarters. " I come here," said he 
to the general-in-chief, " to ask you to give up this 
attack. I do not know a single general officer who 
approves of it, and I think it would be disastrous to the 
army." It must be understood . that Sumner was an 
old fighter, always full of juvenile ardor. 

For the first time, Burnside hesitated in his obsti- 
nacy. However, he did not countermand his order. 
He called a council of the corps and division generals. 



2,7^ FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

They voted unanimously against the proposed attack. 
Not yet yielding, he crossed the river, to see if the 
other officers were of the same opinion. Not one 
favored a renewed assault. Finally, he sent for Gen- 
eral Franklin, who, like everybody else, pronounced 
against the proposed attempt. Then only did General 
Burnside, having exhausted all means of getting a fa- 
vorable opinion, revoke the order for a renewed attack, 
and the battle of Fredericksburg was over. It cost us 
thirteen thousand men. The enemy did not lose more 
than six thousand. 

We displayed a bold front to the end. During two 
days we kept our position in line of battle, in front of 
our adversaries, who made no movement to take the 
offensive. Only during the night, as both sides ex- 
pected an attack, the picket lines being close together, 
the firing of the skirmishers caused frequent alarms. 
They were usually brought on by the marauders seek- 
ing to strip the dead, or by some brave men, who, 
under cover of the darkness, ventured outside of the 
lines to give water to the wounded and bring them in 
on their backs. 

The unfortunate wounded remained thus, without 
assistance, during forty-eight mortal hours — mortal, 
indeed, to many of them. Finally, in the afternoon of 
the 15th, I was in the front line, with two regiments, 
when a suspension of hostilities was concluded for two 
hours. Officers, with details of men without arms, car- 
rying litters, were sent immediately upon the ground 
between the lines. In my front only I counted ninety- 
two dead and twenty-six wounded. 

I will never forget the joy of the wounded when they 
were brought into our lines. One of them cried out, 
trying to raise himself on his litter : " A/l rigJit notv ! T 
sJiall not die like a dog, in iJie ditch.'' Another said to 



FREDERICKSBURG. 379 

the men carrying him, while two great tears ran down 
his hollow cheeks : " Thanks, my friends. Thanks to 
you, I shall see my mother again." 

The dead were hideous : black, swollen, covered with 
clotted blood, riddled with balls, torn by shells. The 
rebels, poorly clothed, had left them neither shoes, nor 
trousers, nor overcoats. Among them I had the oppor- 
tunity to recognize the body of young Dekone, aid to 
General Meade. His remains, at least, could be sent 
to his sorrowing family. 

At nine o'clock in the evening the order came to fall 
back in silence to the bridges ; during the night the 
whole army repassed the Rappahannock without the 
enemy finding out the movement, and the next day we 
returned to our old camps with the hope of not leaving 
them ao:ain durins: the winter. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

EMANCIPATION. 

Military balance-sheet for the year 1862 — The emancipation question 
— The inaugural address of Mr. Lincoln — Reserve of the President 
and of Congress — General Fremont — Abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia — Proposition for gradual emancipation — Gen- 
eral Hunter — Confiscation act — Progress of emancipation — Letter 
of Mr. Lincoln — Religious deputation — Last scruples — Prepara- 
tory dispositions — Definite proclamation of emancipation. 

The battle of Fredericksburg closed the year 1862 by 
a defeat. The Army of the Potomac was not fortu- 
nate. However, its reverses were due solely to the 
want of ability of the generals who had commanded it. 
Neither of them had possessed the high military quali- 
ties required to command successfully an army of a 
hundred thousand men. Thus, the only two offensive 
battles which they had fought (Antietam and Fredericks- 
burg) were reduced to partial and successive attacks. 
I do not cite Williamsburg, which was an accidental 
victory of a few divisions, without the participation of 
and unforeseen by the general-in-chief. On the defen- 
sive the same lack of ability had caused the rout of the 
Fourth Corps at Seven Pines, and that of the Fifth 
Corps at Gaines' Mill. It might have resulted in the 
complete destruction of the army if it had not been for 
the vigorous energy of Sumner at Savage Station, of 
Franklin at White Oak Swamp, of Hooker at Glendale. 
The same remark will apply to the campaign of Pope, 
who, however, did not belong to the Army of the Poto- 
mac, since the latter only appeared therein in part and 
as reenforcements. 

380 



EMANCIPATION. 351 

In the conduct of a battle, observe the disposition of 
the movements in bodies and you will know the worth 
of the general-in-chief. 

The proximity to Washington on one side and to 
Richmond on the other made Virginia the principal 
theatre of the war. There, between the two capitals, 
the greatest efforts were concentrated. There the 
enemy opposed to us the " flower of his chivalry ; " and 
we brought against him the best contingents of all the 
Eastern States, reenforced by good troops from the 
Northwest. It was seen on both sides that the Gordian 
knot of the war would be cut there, which explains the 
great importance attached to successes or reverses on 
this theatre. 

But the war was being carried on in other parts of 
the country with not less vigor, and more success. On 
the Atlantic coast, we were solidly established in North 
Carolina and at some points of South Carolina and 
Florida. In the south of Virginia, we had retaken 
Norfolk, the maritime arsenal of the rebels, and in 
Georgia, Fort Pulaski, which commanded the mouth of 
the Savannah. The mouths of the Mississippi had been 
forced, the works which defended them captured, and 
we occupied New Orleans and a part of Louisiana. 

In the West, we have seen that the spring cam- 
paign had opened by the capture of Fort Henry, on the 
Tennessee, and of the intrenched camp of Fort Donel- 
son, on the Cumberland. This double victory carried 
with it the fall of Nashville and Columbus. Missouri 
and a part of Arkansas were swept clean of rebel troops. 
Island No. lo, which the enemy had covered with defen- 
sive works to bar the Mississippi against us, had been 
gloriously reduced. Going from victory to victory, to 
recover the navigation of the river which divided the 
Southern Confederacy in two parts, we had taken from 



382 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the enemy the city of Memphis and Forts Pillow and 
Randolph, which are on the river. To drive him from 
Kentucky and Tennessee, the possession of which he 
obstinately disputed with us, we had fought in the 
spring at Shiloh, and in the autumn at Corinth and 
Perryville. Finally, in the West the year closed by 
the victory, on December 31, of Murfreesborough, which 
threw the Confederate forces nearly out of Tennessee. 

It will be seen that, if we had fallen back in the East, 
on the other hand, we had made large advances in the 
West, and that, on the whole, the campaigns of 1862 
left a large balance in our favor. But the birth of the 
year 1863 was to be marked in America by a conquest 
more important in itself than any military success. 

On January i, emancipation was proclaimed by the 
President. 

To understand the character and bearing of that great 
measure, we must take up the question from the com- 
mencement of the war, where we had left it. 

The Republican party, which had elected Mr. Lincoln 
to the Presidency, was opposed to slavery in principle, 
but in practice it recognized the exclusive right of the 
States to control their domestic institutions. It re- 
spected slavery where it existed in fact. Even more, 
it conceded the constitutional obligation of the free 
States to deliver up fugitive slaves in the manner pre- 
scribed by the law. The only thing it demanded was 
the interdiction of the encroachment of slavery in the 
new territories. 

The inaugural address of President Lincoln, the most 
solemn of manifestoes, was very explicit on these points 
(4th of March, 1861). 

" I have no purpose directly or indirectly," said he, 
" to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States 
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do 



EMANCIPATION. 383 

SO, and I have not the inclination. Those who nomi- 
nated and elected me did so with the full knowledge 
that I had many times repeated this declaration, and 
had never recanted it. And, more than this, they 
placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law 
to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic reso- 
lution which I now read : — 

" ' Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of each State to order and control its own domes- 
tic institutions according to its own judgment exclu- 
sively is essential to the balance of power on which the 
perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, 
and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force 
of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under 
what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.' 

" I now reiterate these sentiments, and, in so doing, I 
only press upon the public attention the most conclu- 
sive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the 
property, peace, and security of no section are to be in 
any wise endangered by the now incoming administra- 
tion. I add, too, that all the protection which, consist- 
ently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, 
will be cheerfully given to all the States, when lawfully 
demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one sec- 
tion as to another. 

" There is much controversy about the delivering up 
of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now 
read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any 
other of its provisions : — 

" ' No person held to service or labor in one State, 
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in 
consequence of any law or regulation therein, be dis- 
charged from such service or labor, but shall be deliv- 
ered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due.' 



3^4 FOUR YEARS \V1 ril IHE IWRm.U" ARMY. 

" It is scarcelv questioned that this provision was in- 
tended by those who made it for the reclaiming of what 
we call fugitive slaves — and the intention of the law- 
giv^er is the law." 

This was the departing point. Neither aggression, 
nor hostility, nor denial of justice from the new admin- 
istration to the Southern States, already in arms against 
it, even before it was inaugurated. But in taking the 
initiative of the war they necessarily accepted the con- 
sequences of the war. And by violently separating 
themselves from the government of the United States 
they rejected the protection with which the Union cov- 
ered their domestic institutions ; by destroying the federal 
constitution, they renounced the right to invoke its pro- 
tection. The logical consequences were about to develop 
slowly but surely. We will follow them step by step. 

On the call of the President, Congress assembled in 
extra session July 4, 1861. The message was silent on 
the question of slavery. It w^as devoted to events hap- 
pening and measures taken since the inauguration. It 
discussed especially, with great elevation of view, and 
great power of argument, the question of the right of 
secession, in the following language : — 

" This issue embraces more than the fate of these 
United States. It presents to the whole family of man 
the question whether a constitutional republic or democ- 
racy — a government of the people by the same peo- 
ple — can or can not maintain its territorial integrity 
against its own domestic foes. It presents the ques- 
tion whether discontented individuals, too few in num- 
bers to control administration according to organic law, 
in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in 
this case, or on any other pretences, or arbitrarily, with- 
out anv pretence, break up their government and 
thus practically put an end to free government upon 



EMANCIPATION. 385 

the earth. It forces us to ask, ' Is there, in all repub- 
lics, this inherent and fatal weakness ? ' ' Must a gov- 
ernment, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties 
of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own 
existence ? ' " 

Congress, which is the soul of the people, could not 
be silent on the question of slavery. It first passed a 
resolution declaring that it was not the duty of the 
United States soldiers to return fugitive slaves. A 
self-evident truth, and which it would not have been 
necessary to affirm in that manner if some over-scru- 
pulous generals had not had the inhumanity to return to 
their masters some unfortunate slaves who had sought 
refuge in our lines. 

A general discussion followed, from which it appeared 
that Congress had no more than the administration 
any idea of abolishing slavery where it existed. The 
future course of events was indicated by Mr, Dixon, 
senator from Connecticut, when he said that, if the war 
were prolonged and it came to the point that the gov- 
ernment or slavery must perish, the conservative people 
of the North would declare, " Let slavery perish rather 
than the government ! " For the present, a resolution 
proposed by Mr. Crittenden was adopted, assigning as 
the sole object of the war the defence and mainte- 
nance of the supremacy of the constitution and the 
preservation of the Union, with the dignity, equality, 
and rights of the different States unaltered. 

Certainly it was impossible to show more moderation. 
The authorities were still so conservative as to every- 
thing which regarded slavery that the only fugitive 
slaves who at that time were protected against legal 
reclamation were those whom their masters had em- 
ployed on some military work against the government 
and authority of the United States. 



3S6 FOUR ^'EARS WITH THE R^^TOMAC ARMY. 

The abolitionist party and the impatient part of the 
Republican party were irritated by this conservative 
aspect as to slavery ; but the President continued faith- 
fully in the line of conduct which he had determined on 
— to ad^'ance with the people, and even to follow rather 
than precede. Thus, when, in the month of August, 
General Fremont, at that time commanding in Mis- 
souri, proclaimed martial law in that State, and confis- 
cated the property, real and personal, of the citizens in 
arms against the government, which included the liber- 
ation of their slaves, he was immediately rebuked 
and ordered peremptorily to recall that premature 
measure. 

Congress reassembled December 2. The President 
perceived the necessity of stronger action, but still 
contented himself with recommending that they should 
not act with too much haste. Now the House of Rep- 
resentatives took the initiative. The extreme considera- 
tion shown towards slaver}' had remained without effect 
to bring back the rebels, and abroad had only cooled the 
S}Tnpathy of the liberals for our cause. It was time to 
take a more pronounced course. 

The first propositions were to request the President 
to emancipate the slaves as soon as that measure should 
be considered opportune to aid in beating down the 
rebellion. They were not adopted, it is true ; but the 
first blow was struck by the abolition of slaver}- in 
the District of Columbia, with pecuniar}^ compensation, 
and by its prohibition in all the territories belonging to 
the United States. 

At that time, the President, perceiving the mounting 
tide, thought to open the way before the dikes were 
carried away. On March 6, he sent to Congress a spe- 
cial message, recommending the adoption of the fol- 
lowing resolution : — 



" "SLssfivJ^ T!iat the Umced Stscss. in. irier j3 c^- 
iperats witii arty State wincit maar adorrc zraduaL sbaur- 

tir, ' - :- be 

:ife;- . .-- : -^ — — - ......^^ it 

Tfjt tie an. :'ce, puisixc ir p±7at2, ancucsa. W 

Hick cnan^'i '>l •^v«snL ' 

Taere wss sdlL tie r^cr^gmnan i£ tiie crmstnnrniiiai 
rigat of the iScatss t::; ieccrre the cEuesricrL ir "^em- 
seiTes^ at the same time lEeriii^ to asKst r^t«n hy peca- 
n^rr osmpenssricii in : r!iL 

It ina^ be rsnarxes: a ":»as accptad 

lymj agsmst the oppcsiricii hoth at those hi s^Tnroathv 
with the r^X)J.'OTL - crash it:, 'w^sx 

hi haste t;v bring t„: ii :„ .i: j.r2surzs t3 b^ir 
aaahist itL Oa both sdes the^ msoted ever . ' t hi ng <h: 

prsserr^ ~7 zm^: the 

,-- ; .— -.. ^ ^ .. .- . i_ _ 3c ^;ne rsallj iiad ixr 

great canwdencs m. its pacinc Times, 

The President, in Tain. :iaed ever v efort to Tnatg?^ :he 
measare xtsGuL He addressed himself -nrecti? is tiie 
Rgpresaitarives ot the border States : he seit t:: C.:jni- 
greas a project reJatrre tc the atlotmait ot the scan 
esdmated as eventnaTT _t rnrrcse. 

His Toice was not sec i 3iet vxh 

no response. We must recognize that the reople had 
lost its patieice. The Nrrti sbrwed itself as tired <i£ 
ottering comprcmises as the Sr^rtii -xns rcifnnars m. 
repellfng them, 

Nevertheless. Mr. Lincoin ^r^ced zz- cr?".i:i?e everr 
Tnf^T?>t General H":srter. wire ^cmmanded the depart- 
ment of the South composed of the parts -v rtirh we 
occnpied in South Carolina, Gecrzia, and Florida, si- 
dearrored to iorce his hand. Scrsigthening himselt cnr 
tiie incompatiljilitj of mar^a. law and Skarrerv in a tree 
cotratry, he declared the Carres lorever tree in tiiDse 



388 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

three States, The President immediately issued a proc- 
lamation annulling that declaration as an encroach- 
ment on the power reserved to him, and which he could 
in no case abandon to the generals in the field. He 
then called attention to the resolution adopted by Con- 
gress, " An offer authentic and a definite and solemn 
proposal of the nation to the States and their citizens 
the most interested on the subject." He adjured them 
again to take it into serious consideration, and " not 
to be blind as to the signs of the times," but to profit 
by the privilege that Divine Providence had given them 
to make much greater efforts than any they had made 
in the past. " So that," said he, in finishing, " you may 
not in the future have to deplore having neglected your 
opportunity." 

This eloquent appeal did not obtain the affranchise- 
ment of a single slave ; and the abolition wave mounted 
higher and higher. 

In an act of Congress, known by the name of the 
" Confiscation Bill," and approved July 17, by the 
President : The slaves of every person convicted of 
the crime of treason against the United States, or de- 
clared guilty of having aided or assisted the rebellion 
by any act, or of having taken part therein ; — slaves 
of every person engaged in rebellion or aiding it, who 
took refuge within our lines, who might be captured, or 
found afterwards in any place occupied by the United 
States forces, after having been occupied by the rebel 
forces, were declared free. — The military authorities 
were forbidden, under pain of dismissal from the army, 
to assist in any reclamation of a fugitive slave, in what- 
ever State or Territory it might be. — Authority was 
given to the President to employ as many men of Afri- 
can blood as he should judge necessary or expedient 
for the suppression of the rebellion, and to organize and 



EMANCIPATION. 389 

employ them in any manner which he might consider 
for the best interests of the country. 

Thus, among the different measures combined in this 
bill were to be found side by side the confiscation for 
life of the property of the rebels and the emancipation 
of their slaves, and by the side of a project for coloni- 
zing the blacks in some foreign country the authoriza- 
tion to form regiments to actively aid in the war, the 
first cause of which had been their former condition. 

Another act of Congress, approved at the same time, 
went still farther on the road to emancipation. It ex- 
tended the benefit to the mother, to the wife, and to 
the children of every negro employed by the govern- 
ment in military labor, at the fixed price of ten dollars 
a month, provided that the mothers, wives, and children 
did not belong to a master who had remained faithful 
to the Union. 

Matters had arrived at a point where they could not 
stop. These distinctions between slaves, these dis- 
criminations giving, liberty to some and keeping the 
others in slavery, had an unjust and odious appearance. 
Whit ! If we free the slaves, is it not for the sake of 
humanity, of civilization, of eternal justice! Is it not 
for the honor of the United States ! This great re- 
demption from a stain which has existed too long is 
reduced to the proportion of an expedient to strike the 
authors and plotters of the rebellion, and punish them 
in their material interests. Such was the effect of this 
political trick that the right to liberty was denied to 
the unfortunates who were found to be the property of 
the partisans of a liberating government, or of the un- 
decided, and conceded to the slaves whom a happy 
chance had made the property of its enemies. 

There was something revolting in all this, which did 
not fail to have its effect on the public conscience. 



390 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The extra session of Congress had hardly closed when 
popular feeling began to bear directly on the President. 
From all sides, absolute and immediate emancipation 
was demanded from him. He, however, declined to 
act, fearing to be in too great haste. 

On the 23d of August, he thus defined his rule of con- 
duct, in a letter which made a great sensation : — 

" I would save the Union. I would save it in the 
shortest way under the Constitution. 

"The sooner the national authority can be restored, 
the nearer the Union will be — the Union as it was. 

" If there be those who would not save the Union 
unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do 
not agree with them. 

" If there be those who would not save the Union 
unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I 
do not agree with them. 

"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not 
either to save or to destroy slavery. 

" If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, 
I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the 
slaves, I would do it, — and if I could do it by freeing 
some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. 

" What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do 
because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and what 
I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would 
help to save the Union. 

" I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am 
doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever 
I believe doing more will help the cause. 

" I shall try to correct errors when shown to be 
errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they 
shall appear to be true views." 

Mr. Lincoln was a man of perfect honesty and of rare 
good-sense. It could not be said of him that he was 



EMA^-CI PATION. 3 9 1 

a great philosopher or a great statesman. But good- 
sense has the excellent quality that it arrives at the goal 
surely, although it takes its own time, while genius 
sometimes fails to reach it, from trying to grasp it by 
too eager an effort. In this case, the fear of being in 
advance of public opinion put the President behind it, 
and made him hesitate before the "signs of the times," 
which he had, however, perceived. For him, the hour 
had not yet come. 

On one point he was mistaken. It was no longer a 
question of the Union as it was, that was to be reestab- 
lished ; it was the Union as it should be, that is to say, 
washed clean from its original sin, regenerated on the 
baptismal font of liberty for all. 

Unless with that object, why this war, these immense 
sacrifices of every kind, these enormous immolations of 
men .' To build up the crumbling edifice with the same 
stones which could not sustain it before '^. To renew 
the impossible endeavor to suppress the effect, while 
retaining the cause } But that was no solution ; it was 
a putting-off. It was no reconstruction ; it was a plas- 
tering-up. 

Matters being in the same state as before, how could 
the future prevent that which the past had not been 
able to prevent .'' We would have proved ourselves the 
stronger ; but it would be necessary for us to prove the 
same thing to-morrow, the day after to-morrow, in five 
years, in ten years. The strife would have been eter- 
nally renewed, as long as the two incompatible and 
antagonistic elements, free labor and slave labor, ex- 
isted together in the Republic. And we would have 
dragged behind us the heavy ball of slavery, which 
made us limp on the way of progress, and made us re- 
semble rather the condemned criminals of civilization 
than its pioneers. 



392 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Happily, Providence had other designs. It would not 
allow the seed which it had caused to germinate to be 
scattered to the winds, nor the harvest to be trampled 
under foot. The logical outcome must be accom- 
plished. It was of little importance whether the watch 
of the President was too slow. The hour had sounded 
on the people's clock. 

On the 13th of September, as if God himself wished 
to speak by the voice of those who were regarded as 
being nearer him, a deputation of clergymen of all the 
different denominations, coming from Chicago, was re- 
ceived at the White House. They came, in their turn, 
to ask of the President the proclamation of universal 
emancipation. 

Mr. Lincoln replied at first in a tone half joking, 
half serious, putting into his answer a few words on the 
divine Will, which every one believed he was capable of 
interpreting, even those with opinions the most diverse 
and opposite. He hoped that there was no irreverence 
in supposing that upon a point so closely connected 
with his duty God would reveal himself directly to him. 
However, as the day of miracles had passsed, they could 
certainly believe that he had not that expectation. He 
limited himself then to studying simply the material 
facts of the case, in order to deduce from them what 
might be just and wise. 

The President entered into an explanation of the con- 
sideration and of the difficulties which had heretofore 
held him back. The delegates insisted, and gave all the 
considerations, moral and material, which bore in favor 
of the measure. Pressed closely, Mr. Lincoln had to 
admit that slavery was the cause of the rebellion, with- 
out which it would not have been ; that emancipation 
would aid us in Europe and in America ; and that it 
would weaken the rebels. Evidently his objections 



EMANCIPATION. 393 

were scarcely without exception dilatory, a scruple 
already shaken. He declared, in conclusion, that he 
had not decided against a proclamation, but that he had 
the subject in his mind, deliberating upon it day and 
night more than any other. His last words were, 
"Whatever shall appear to be God's will I will do." 
Judgment was not entered up, but the suit was won. 

Nine days after, September 22, appeared a prepara- 
tory proclamation, in which it was declared that on the 
ist of January following the executive power would 
designate the States and portions of States which were 
in rebellion against the United States, and that, at that 
date, every person held in slavery in these States or 
portions of States would be, from and after that date, 
forever free. 

And, in fact, at the opening of the year 1863 the 
definite proclamation of emancipation was made : — 

" Whereas on the 22d of September, in the year of 
our Lord 1862, a proclamation was issued by the Presi- 
dent of the United States, containing, among other 
things, etc. 

" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 
the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested 
as commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the 
United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against 
the authority and government of the United States, and 
as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said 
rebellion, do, on this first day of January in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, 
and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly 
proclaim for the full period of one hundred days from 
the day first above mentioned, order and designate, as 
the States and parts of States wherein' the people 
thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the 
United States, the following, viz. : — 



394 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

"Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of 
St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. 
Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre 
Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. Martin, and Orleans, 
including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, 
and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated 
as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, 
Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess 
Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and 
Portsmouth), and which excepted parts are for the 
present left precisely as if this proclamation were not 
issued. 

" And by virtue of the power and for the purpose 
aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held 
as Slavics within said designated States and parts of 
States are, and henceforward shall be, free ; and that the 
Executive Government of the United States, including 
the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize 
and maintain the freedom of said persons. 

"And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to 
be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary 
self-defence ; and I recommend to them that, in all cases 
when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 

" And I further declare and make known that such 
persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the 
armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, 
positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels 
of all sorts in said service. 

" And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act 
of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military 
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of man- 
kind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed," 
etc. 



EMANCIPATION. 395 

It will be understood that the reservations made in 
the proclamation were only a matter of form. In the 
portions of the States expressly excepted, and in the 
States which were not mentioned, because they had 
not separated themselves from the Union, — Missouri, 
Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and Delaware, — 
slavery existed only in name. In fact, the slaves either 
had been taken or sent South by their masters, and 
were rightfully free, as belonging to owners participat- 
ing in or aiding the rebellion ; or they had been left 
upon the plantations, and were therefore free in point 
of fact, doing as they pleased and able to go away when 
they pleased, without fear of being apprehended and 
returned to their masters. The military authorities 
were formally forbidden to interfere, and nobody dared 
reclaim the fugitives before the civil magistrate. 

The war at last assumed its true character : a war for 
liberty, against slavery. The time for disguise had 
passed. Congress in its acts and the President in his 
proclamation had in vain and repeatedly declared that 
the only objects of the war were "the restoration of the 
Union, the maintenance of the supremacy of the fed- 
eral government, and the reestablishment of constitu- 
tional relations between the United States and the 
States in which these relations were suspended or dis- 
turbed." Congress and the President could not at first 
comprehend in its full extent the civilizing work of 
which they were the instruments, — or, which is more 
probable, for political reasons they preferred not to 
proclaim them in advance. But, in any case, they 
could not have things any different from what they 
were. 

Congress and the President were only the agents of 
the people. To the people they left the duty of direct- 
ing the march, limiting themselves, so to say, to mark 



396 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

out the road travelled. Thus the government and the 
nation took the same step, and, as they marched to- 
gether, they must reach the goal together. 

And they attained the goal. The question was de- 
cided. Between the Republic and the accursed institu- 
tion there was henceforth war to the death. The 
triumphs of the one led necessarily to the destruction 
of the other. And it was not the Republic which was 
destined to perish. 

Now, we could march with a prouder step, and fight 
with more confidence. We were no longer merely the 
soldiers of a political controversy, to be decided by the 
fate of arms. We were now the missionaries of a great 
work of redemption, the armed liberators of millions of 
men bent beneath the brutalizing yoke of slavery. The 
war was ennobled ; the object was higher. While 
meriting well from the country, we deserved well from 
humanity. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 

The Fifty-fifth New York consolidated with the Thirty-eighth — New 
Year's day in camp — Abuse of strong liquor in the army — New 
projects of General Burnside — Plan of a cavalry expedition by Gen- 
eral Averill — Intervention of the President — Burnside at Washing- 
ton — General Newton and General Cochrane — Complications — 
The army in motion — A gloomy night — The army buried in the mud 
— Return to camp — General order No. 8 — How General Burnside 
came to be relieved of the command of the army. 

The career of the Fifty-fifth New York ended with the 
year 1862. At the battle of Fredericksburg, it could 
put but two hundred and ten men in line, and, although 
on that occasion it lost only a dozen men, nevertheless 
it was one of the regiments the most reduced in num- 
bers. Now, in the impossibility of filling the vacant 
ranks by recruiting, the War Department adopted the 
only alternative remaining to make the force effective, 
— that of taking the feeble regiments to fill up the 
stronger, provided the latter were old organizations 
and from the same State. The Fifty-fifth was thus 
absorbed in the Thirty-eighth New York, forming the 
four left companies, and I was called to this new com- 
mand, which numbered 804 men, of whom about five 
hundred were present in the ranks. In reality it was a 
small regiment ; comparatively it was large. 

The Thirty-eighth was a good regiment, steady 
under fire, and asking only to be led by a firm hand, by 
a commander knowing how to use it. This point once 
established between us, everything went on well, and I 

397 



398 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOIMAC ARMY. 

had only to praise its bearing and conduct during the 
five months that it was under my command. 

New Year's day passed more gayly than could have 
been expected. General Ward, who was well fittecl for 
all such details, organized diversions in the brigade, 
which met with great success : foot-races, mule-races, 
sack-races, greased pole ; burlesque procession ; comic 
interludes, — nothing was lacking to the fete, in which 
the division joyfully participated. 

The higher officers paid their visits to the tents of 
the generals, where the inevitable drink watered the 
day's greetings. General Sickles, who, at that time, 
commanded Hooker's old division, did things in grand 
style. During the whole day he kept open house at 
his headquarters. The collation, which he had ordered 
from Washington, was abundant and choice. The 
champagne and whiskey ran in streams. I wish I could 
add that they were used in moderation ; but the truth 
is that the subaltern officers, attracted by the good 
cheer, partook of them so freely that it was not to 
the honor of the uniform nor to the profit of discipline. 
Amicus Sickles, sed magis arnica Veritas. 

Drunkenness is, as all know, the dominant vice of 
the Celts and Anglo-Saxons. To keep the army from 
being overcome with it, prevention was much more effi- 
cient than repression. So that, while offences proceed- 
ing from that source were punished as the regulations 
demanded, the sale of wine and liquors to the soldiers 
and purveyors for staffs was expressly forbidden. That 
the desire for enormous profit led, sometimes, to the 
secret violation of this order was the exception, and did 
not invalidate the general good effect of the regulation. 
But it would have added much if the officers had given 
the good example of sobriety. Unhappily, this was not 
the case, and it happened too often for some of them 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 399 

that the privilege of providing themselves with liquors 
only offered facilities for indulging in habits of gross 
intemperance. When they were on duty they were 
liable to be court-martialled, and, if convicted, dismissed 
from the army. So it was generally in the evening, in 
their tents, that they indulged their ignoble appetites. 
Impunity was assured them if the colonel would close 
his eyes. And there were cases where the colonel did 
worse than that, and joined himself in nightly orgies. 
I knew such a regiment, where, during that winter, the 
soldiers were often disturbed in their sleep by the 
obscene refrains and drunken cries from the tent of 
the commanding officer. One can judge of the deplo- 
rable effect. 

Such matters depend upon the officers commanding. 
If certain regimental commanders indulged with impu- 
nity in such license, it was because there was culpable 
tolerance on the part of the generals under whose 
orders they were serving. This excessive indulgence 
had its origin in a false manner of looking at things, 
much too prevalent, especially amongst those whose 
younger years had not been shaped by a healthy family 
influence, or by the feelings in the heart of a gentle- 
man. In their eyes, drunkenness was less a degrada- 
tion than a subject for pleasantry. The officer who 
exhibited himself in that state exposed himself to ridi- 
cule, but not to contempt. A remonstrance might 
follow sometimes, after repeated instances ; a punish- 
ment only as a last resort. 

In such a case these generals were the really guilty. 
They extended the evil instead of stopping it, and were 
so much the more culpable that, to banish the evil from 
their staffs, all that was necessary was to show their 
disgust, and announce the determination to send to his 
regiment every officer who should be intoxicated. 



400 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Therefore it was necessary for the highest authorities 
to take measures to reform these abuses. The few 
generals who happened to be themselves inclined to the 
immoderate use of intoxicatiug liquors were, at a later 
date, relieved from their commands. More severe orders 
were made to regulate the sale of such articles to the 
officers. Each one of them was required to designate 
on the regimental order book the kind and the quantity 
of liquors required for his personal use, which was 
allowed to him within certain limits. This requisition, 
subject to the approval of both the colonel and the 
general commanding the brigade, required the signature 
of the provost-general, to become effective, and the 
sutlers authorized to furnish it could in no case exceed 
it, under pain of expulsion from the army and confisca- 
tion of their goods. The same regulation applied to the 
staff officers, and the generals themselves, although not 
restricted as to quantity, had not the less to sign the 
orders given their purveyors. In this way the evil was 
attacked at its root by the impossibility of introducing 
in the camps an excess of intoxicating liquors, and, as 
the courts-martial acted with vigor against the delin- 
quents who were brought before them, it came to pass 
that drunkenness became an exception in the army, 
where it had threatened to become a universal habit. 

The army, duly installed in winter quarters, did not 
suspect how uncertain was that installation. Behind 
the curtain of the monotonous camp life at this time, 
movements were projected which might any day change 
the face of affairs. 

Since the battle of Fredericksburg, the troops had 
lost their confidence in the general-in-chief. That pre- 
cious element of success no longer existed for us. A 
common sentiment of distrust showed itself everywhere, 
aggravated by the deep sense of injury in the divisions 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 4OI 

which, having suffered the most, complained of having 
been uselessly sacrificed. Their complaints and accu- 
sations against General Burnside were repeated in 
sympathetic echoes in the other corps as well under 
the officers' tents as around the bivouac fires. These 
complaints became discouragements among the lighter 
minds and feebler characters, and the number of deser- 
tions, a sure indicator of the moral condition of armies, 
mounted up from day to day to unexampled proportions. 

It would be difficult to admit that the general-in-chief 
did not know it, for the generals understood perfectly 
well the disposition of the army. Much more, the 
larger part of them were as distrustful' as their troops, 
and would have regarded with great reluctance any re- 
newed attempt to force the line of the Rappahannock. 

However, General Burnside was not of a character to 
regard himself as beaten. His plan once determined 
on, he pursued it a oiitrance, sustained by the honesty 
of his intentions, by devoted patriotism, and by what we 
might call obstinate devotion to duty. So that his first 
thought, after the want of success at Fredericksburg, 
had been again to try fortune to obtain his revenge. 
Keeping to himself his secret designs, while the army 
was working like beavers, he had without noise got 
ready for a new advance movement. This time, he 
intended to cross the river six or seven miles below 
Fredericksburg, and strike a decisive blow, by surpris- 
ing the army of the enemy in the rear of its intrench- 
ments. 

At the same time, a select body of cavalry was to be 
sent to southern Virginia. This enterprise had been 
planned and worked out by General Averill. His pro- 
posed route was, to cross the Rappahannock at Kelly's 
Ford, the Rapidan at Raccoon Ford, the James thirty 
miles above Richmond, pass around the city at a dis- 



402 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tance, going south of Petersburg, and join the troops 
of General Peck at Suffolk. His design was to cut all 
the communications of the Confederate capital with the 
South and West, where they were then fighting at Mur- 
freesborough, and with that object to destroy the James 
River canal, blowing up the locks ; to burn the viaduct 
of the Richmond & Danville Railroad across the Appo- 
mattox, and the bridge at Flat Creek a little further 
down ; to demolish the railroad from Petersburg to 
Lynchburg at the point where it crosses the tributaries 
of the Nottoway, and the bridges at that point ; to burn 
the trestle work of the railroad from Petersburg to 
Weldon on the Nottoway and the bordering swamps ; 
and, finally, to cut the telegraphic wires wherever they 
were found ; to destroy everything in the nature of 
public property ; in a word, to do all possible injury to 
the enemy. 

The plan drew out all these operations in detail, and 
contained besides the dispositions necessary to make 
sure the start. 

The raiding column consisted of a thousand selected 
men with their mounts, four field pieces, each drawn by 
eight selected horses, and of twenty mounted soldiers of 
the engineer corps, under the command of an officer of 
that arm, with the materials necessary to burn the 
bridges, to destroy the railroads, to blow up all construc- 
tions of stone, etc. 

On December 30 everything was ready. Roads lead- 
ing to the Seddon House, whfere the army was to cross 
the river, were opened in the woods, and corduroyed for 
the passage of the artillery and the wagons. The de- 
tachments of cavalry, destined to mask the principal 
movement by false attacks on Warrenton, Culpeper, and 
other points, were already at their posts. A brigade of 
infantry had even made a demonstration on the right 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 403 

bank of the Rappahannock, Finally, General Averill 
himself was at Kelly's Ford, at the head of his column, 
when everything was stopped by an unforeseen counter- 
order. 

General Burnside had just received a telegraphic de- 
spatch, in which the President forbade him undertaking 
any general movement, without first advising him. The 
more surprised at such a communication inasmuch as 
he had confided the secret of his design to no one, the 
general went immediately to Washington to discover 
the cause. There he learned that two of the generals 
under his orders had come directly to the President, to 
represent to him that the army was in a state of de- 
moralization, resulting from its want of confidence in its 
general-in-chief ; that the latter, judging by certain 
orders relative to rations and ammunition, was on the 
eve of commencing operations, and, in the opinion of all 
the generals, this was to run to certain disaster. 

General Halleck and Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, 
were called in. Neither of them knew anything of the 
information and advice given the President, nor of the 
telegram sent in consequence of it. In their presence, 
General Burnside unfolded his plans, which were dis- 
cussed. He insisted on the reasons which made prompt 
movement desirable. General Halleck said nothing; 
the President asked time for consideration, and Burn- 
side returned to his post, nothing being decided. 

The two generals who were the informants of the 
President were : Newton, commanding the Third Divis- 
ion of the Sixth Corps, and Cochrane, commanding the 
First Brigade of the same division. Although Mr. Lin- 
coln had refused to name them, the mystery was not 
difficult to penetrate ; but it was not so easy to discover 
whether, as they afterwards testified before the Con- 
gressional committee, they had really acted on their 



404 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

own motion, or whether they had been urged on by 
others to bell the cat. We will soon see that General 
Burnside believed that he had grounds for the latter 
opinion. 

However it might be, the projected movement was 
definitely abandoned as having become known, and the 
cavalry raid was put off indefinitely, the plan having 
been divulged, in some way or other, to some people in 
Washington known as Southern partisans. The enemy 
was always well served by the spies whom he kept in 
our midst. 

But, although abandoning one plan, Burnside had not 
given up the idea of trying another. It was his dispo- 
sition to strive against difificulties rather than yield to 
them. He had not been able to cross the Rappahan- 
nock below Fredericksburg. He would cross it above. 
For that he only asked a formal approval of the Presi- 
dent and General Halleck, in order to blot out the 
influence of the late telegram and silence the nearly 
unanimous opposition of the generals of his army to an 
operation of that kind. 

The President had already enough upon his hands, 
especially since the partial triumph of the Democrats in 
the autumnal elections, and in presence of the anger 
excited amongst them by the proclamation of emanci- 
pation. The risk of creating new embarrassments he 
w^ould not incur ; and, besides, as to military operations, 
he could not use his own judgment, but must rely on 
that of his counsellors. As to General Halleck, he was 
much more ready to take the negative responsibility of 
his position than to assume the positive responsibility 
of his orders, — on account of which it was commonly 
said that his position of general of the armies was like 
that of a fifth wheel to a coach. On this occasion, he 
did not depart from his usual role. He replied in 



I 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 405 

general terms, that he had always been in favor of a 
forward movement of the army, but that he could not 
take the responsibility of prescribing when or how that 
movement should be executed. He finished with a few 
military commonplaces on the management of armies 
in the field. This non-committal letter had the approv- 
ing indorsement of the President. 

If they had reckoned that the resolution of Burnside 
would become lukewarm on receiving such vague en- 
couragement, they were deceived. He asked nothing 
more, and set to work immediately with an ardor and a 
promptness which showed he had infinitely less hesita- 
tion before the risks of the enterprise than fear of 
being again stopped in its execution. He went himself 
to carefully reconnoitre the banks of the Rappahannock 
above Falmouth, and completed his preparations to 
cross all his forces at Banks and United States fords, 
— fords which were not passable at that season of the 
year ; but, this time, the pontoons could not be too 
late ; he had them with him. 

There was, however, a delay caused by some unac- 
countable movements of the enemy. He had to send 
to the other side of the river for explanation, on two 
successive nights. On the third day, the reports being 
satisfactory, the whole army received the final order to 
march the next day, January 20. 

The first preparatory order had been issued on the 
i6th ; we did not expect it. What likelihood, in fact, 
was there that one would think of commencing active 
operations in the middle of the winter .' We knew 
nothing, at that time, of the visit of Newton and Coch- 
rane to Washington, nor of the telegram of the Presi- 
dent, nor of the project stopped on the eve of its 
execution. Still less did we know what was passing in 
the head of the general-in-chief. It was said that 



406 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Hooker had been in Washington ; that he was to be 
placed at the head of the army, or that an independent 
command would be cut out for him, of which the Third 
Corps would certainly form part ; but nothing of all 
this talk indicated any immediate or even probable 
movement. 

A few indications, significant in appearance, rather 
denoted the contrary. For instance, the ladies were 
allowed passes to visit the army, which was only per- 
mitted in winter quarters, when active hostilities were 
suspended for some time. General Birney had been 
allowed, without objection, to go to Washington to meet 
Mrs. Birney, who was accompanied by quite a party of 
Philadelphians, ladies, sisters or relatives of officers of 
his staff. They arrived at his headquarters on the 
13th, where everything was ready to receive them, and 
for three days there was nothing but gayety, rides on 
horseback and drives in carriages, collations, reviews, 
music, and improvised dances by moonlight. But here 
comes a fatal order. Immediately our visitors fly to 
the Acquia Creek Railroad, like a flock of frightened 
grasshoppers. The parting greeting was an revoir ! 
But how many would ever see each other again } 

On the 17th the weather turned cold in spite of the 
brio;ht sunshine. On the i8th it froze hard. We were to 
break camp in the afternoon. The prospect was not 
encouraging. In spite of himself, one thought of the 
amount of suffering such weather would entail ; of the 
cold nights in the snow, and the terrible effect of frost 
on the wounded. It was a relief to receive the news 
that the departure was delayed twenty-four hours. We 
concluded from that that the movement was given up 
until the weather moderated. The inconveniences 
arising from a thaw were doubtless great, but on the 
whole preferable. Of the two evils, that was the lesser. 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 407 

On the 20th the division started, at noon. The 
atmosphere was filled with moisture. The lowering 
heavens were without sunshine and without warmth. 
Over the roads still hard, through the fields, and under 
the forests, our long columns of infantry marched till 
night, mingled with batteries of artillery, ammunition 
trains, and wagons carrying the pontoons. 

In the evening we arrived in rear of Banks Ford, 
in some woods composed of young pines with bushy 
tops, where the regiments which were to force the 
passage at daylight in the morning were crowded 
together. This glorious task was assigned to Ward's 
division, and my regiment was awarded the place of 
honor, the advance. But, at the very time when we 
stacked arms, the fog, becoming more and more dense, 
turned to rain, which continued to fall cold, heavy, 
incessant. The dull daylight was soon gone in the 
darkness of night, darker still amongst the pines. We 
were forbidden to light any fires or make any noise that 
might put the enemy on the alert. One saw nothing 
except here and there the dim light of a lantern. 
Nothing was heard but the monotonous dropping of the 
rain and the murmurs of conversations carried on in a 
low voice. 

It was a dismal night ; one of those sleepless nights 
when everything has a funereal aspect, in which the 
enthusiasm is extinguished ; in which courage is worn 
out, the will enfeebled, and the mind stupefied. Under 
such circumstances, inaction is the worst of trials. 
Those who had to pass the hours in pushing on the 
cannon wheels, in drawing the pontoons by hand to the 
edge of the river, in filling up mud-holes, in contending 
against obstacles of every kind, which increased at every 
instant, were better employed. 

When the day began to show its gray light through 



408 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

a confused mass of vapors, the rain had been falling for 
twelve hours, and there were no indications of any ces- 
sation. The wind, which had risen toward the end of 
the night, ran through the trees with a roaring sound. 
At each gust, the water came down in showers from the 
branches, on the soaked soil, where the men were tramp- 
ing around in the mud. 

No order reached us. A few fires were tolerated 
at first, then authorized. The soldier, benumbed with 
frost, soaked from head to foot, could, at least, prepare 
his coffee, and warm his stomach if not his limbs. 
Every one understood that the expedition and the pas- 
sage of the river were out of the question ; but, at all 
hazards, the arms were furbished, and the cartridges 
protected against the dampness. 

The hours passed on without bringing us any news. 
Nothing reached us in the midst of the woods ; nothing 
could pass along the roads, transformed into impassable 
mud-holes. The general officers around us were no 
more favored. Their baggage and their provisions 
were left on the road somewhere in the rear. In the 
afternoon I sent my servants to hunt them up, and, 
while awaiting the absent dinner, after a breakfast made 
up of a dry biscuit and a cup of black coffee, I went 
to sleep under the slender protection of a shelter tent. 
There is a proverb which says, " He who sleeps dines." 
It is a falsehood. I slept, but I did not dine. 

The rain lasted thirty hours without cessation. To 
understand the effect, one must have lived in Virginia 
through a winter. The roads are nothing but dirt 
roads. The mud is not simply on the surface, but 
penetrates the ground to a great depth. It appears as 
though the water, after passing through a first bed of 
clay, soaked into some kind of earth without any con- 
sistency. As soon as the hardened crust on the surface 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 409 

is softened, everything is buried in a sticky paste mixed 
with liquid mud, in which, with my own eyes, I have 
seen teams of mules buried. That was our condition 
on the 2 1st of January, 1863. 

The earth gave way under our feet, and especially 
under the wheels of the wagons and artillery carriages. 
The great efforts and herculean work of the precedino- 
night had succeeded in bringing a few pontoons near 
the river, and in placing a few pieces in battery. But 
everything else was buried in the slough. All the 
teams had, as it were, given out under the crushing 
weight of a superhuman power, which forbade their 
going farther. 

In vain had efforts been made to fill up the mud-holes 
or open new side roads ; in vain had whole companies 
dragged at the cannon, the caissons, the wagons carrying 
ammunition, — all was useless. The powers of heaven 
and earth were against us. We must wait until we 
were permitted to take back to camp the whole war 
equipment, so unfortunately put in motion. 

The second day, the rain having at last stopped, I 
owed to the hospitality of General Ward the first good 
meal I had eaten for two days. A slice of ham is 
under such circumstances a good fortune. 

On all sides the men set to work. By digging, 
pushing, drawing, and corduroying, the cannon and 
caissons were finally extricated. The wagons which 
had overturned were again righted, and finally, on the 
23d, we reentered our camp, leaving no traces of our 
" mud march " except extinguished fires, fallen trees, 
and dead animals lying by the side of the buried 
road. 

It might be imagined that this new failure was far 
from making General Burnside any more good-tempered 
than before. The army had done its duty without hesi- 



4IO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tation ; but, on its return to camp, had allowed its dis- 
content to giv^e vent in criticisms and murmurs. The 
general commanding {tenaceni propositi virum) resolved 
then to turn against his critics the blows which he had 
not been able to deal upon the enemy. He drew up 
the General Order No. 8, which, though never issued, 
was not the less known to everybody. This order, a 
little military coup d'etat, dismissed from the United 
States' service Generals Hooker, Brooks, Newton, and 
Cochrane, and relieved from their commands in the 
Army of the Potomac, Generals Franklin, W. F. Smith, 
Hurgis, Ferrero, and Colonel Taylor. But this order 
could not be carried out without the approbation of the 
President. Consequently, the general left for Washing- 
ton with the order and with his written resignation, de- 
termined to have one or the other accepted by Mr. 
Lincoln. 

In the alternative, thus categorically placed before 
him, the President was very much embarrassed. He 
did not wish to deprive the country of the services of 
the general officers designated in Order No. 8, nor of 
those of General Burnside himself. In order to delay 
matters, he put off his reply until the next day, to take 
time, he said, to consult the Secretary of War and Gen- 
eral Halleck. The next day, in fact, the reply was 
ready. When the general presented himself, the Presi- 
dent announced to him his decision to relieve him from 
the command of the Army of the Potomac and nom- 
inate in his stead General Hooker, 

General Burnside accepted this conclusion with the 
noble dignity and unshakable patriotism which formed 
one of the fine sides of his character. Nobody, not the 
President or General Hooker himself, would have re- 
joiced more than he if his successor had been victorious. 
Then, after having approved some other steps on which 



LAST EFFORTS OF BURNSIDE. 411 

the President desired his advice, he spoke of his resio-na- 
tion as being a matter of course. 

" General," interrupted Mr. Lincohi, " I cannot ac- 
cept it. We need your services too much. You can 
take all the time you wish to arrange your private af- 
fairs which demand your attention ; but, as to your 
resignation, we will not accept it." 

" Mr. President," said Burnside, bowing, " it is for 
you to decide whether I do or do not remain in the ser- 
vice, but if I remain it is on the condition that I am 
employed. And I will take the liberty of adding that 
if all the officers whom it will be found necessary to re- 
lieve from their commands would give in their resigna- 
tions it would be very much better for you, as you 
would thus be relieved of the solicitations of their 
friends." 

" It is quite possible," replied the President, " but as 
to your resignation we cannot accept it." 

On leaving the President, the general went to the 
War Office, to write a request for a leave of absence for 
thirty days. He found there the order which relieved 
him from the command of the Army of the Potomac at 
his own request. This was not exactly the case. He 
asked that the formula might be modified, in order, he 
said, not to appear before the country as a man giving 
up his command without some reason. He wished to 
retain the reputation of having remained at his post as 
long as it was thought desirable for him to retain it ; — 
which did not belong to him to determine. General 
Halleck washed his hands of it. (He must have had 
very clean hands if we consider what frequent habit he 
had of resorting to that expedient.) Mr. Stanton took 
the better course, appealing to General Burnside's 
patriotism and eloquently representing to him the 
wrong: that his resignation or his acknowledged disa- 



412 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

greement with the government would do the common 
cause. The heart of Burnside could not resist that 
argument. " Well ! " said he, " draw up the order as 
you please. I will take my leave for thirty days, and 
on my return I will go where you wish, even if it is to 
retake the command of my old corps or even to serve 
under the orders of General Hooker, if you so desire." 
This incident depicts the man. In fact, he took com- 
mand again of the Ninth Corps, but to operate in an 
independent field, in Tennessee, of which he acquitted 
himself with success. We will find him later on in the 
Army of the Potomac, wiping out by good and loyal 
service, as corps commander, his lamented errors as 
commander-in-chief. 



CHAPTER XX. 

HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 

General Hooker's character — Improvements in the army — How pro- 
motions were made — Intrigues and rivalries — Political preferences 
— Brigadier-generals' report — Special marks to designate the differ- 
ent army corps — Poverty of Virginia country people — A pastor with- 
out a flock — Marriage under a tent — Camp fetes — Preparations for 
moving — Combined march on Chancellorsville — Brilliant commence- 
ment of a brilliant conception. 

The selection of General Hooker as commander-in- 
chief was received with favor in the ranks of the army, 
where he already enjoyed an extended popularity. His 
brilliant services as general of division, the part he had 
played at Antietam as corps commander, the wound he 
had received there, finally, the efforts he had made to 
prevent the useless butchery attending the attack on 
the Fredericksburg heights, were so many recommenda- 
tions to the favor and the confidence of the soldier. 
He exercised a direct influence on the troops of his old 
commands, by his open manners, his military bearing, 
and by his intrepidity under fire, which had given him 
the name of " Fighting Joe Hooker." 

Towards the officers his manners were generally 
pleasant, familiar even to taking a glass of whiskey with 
those whom he liked. In the high position in which 
he was placed, a little more reserve would not have 
been out of place. 

He was an easy talker, and was accustomed to criti- 
cise freely, with more sharpness than discretion, even 
in the presence of his inferiors, the conduct and acts 

413 



414 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

of his superiors. On the other hand, when it con- 
cerned himself, he indulged in boastings, that one hear- 
ing could not accept as gospel truth, or reckon modesty 
in the number of his virtues. 

Kind to his subordinates, his kindness would have 
been worth more if he had not extended it too indis- 
criminately to everybody. Prodigal of promises, his 
promises would have inspired more confidence if, after 
having made them, he had not often deprived himself 
of the power to fulfil them. 

He had not acquired the cordial feeling of the gen- 
erals as much as that of the troops. He had wounded 
some by openly criticising them ; he had alienated 
others by putting himself forward at their expense. 
The friends of McClellan did not love him. They had 
against him the double grievance of his military judg- 
ments and of his political opinions, both equally opposed 
to those of their old idol, to whose overthrow he had 
contributed so much. 

The first effect of his promotion was to take from 
the army General Sumner, on account of his higher 
rank, and General Franklin, who was obliged to justify 
himself as to the responsibility for the defeat at Fred- 
ericksburg, which was attributed to him. Hooker, in 
the first place, suppressed the grand divisions. He 
applied himself immediately to raise the morale of the 
army, and to perfect its organization in the different 
branches of the service by a series of well considered 
measures, the effect of which proved the excellence of 
his judgment in such matters. He therein gained the 
incontestable honor of being the first who had raised 
the Army of the Potomac to the level of the regular 
armies of the old world, and above the other armies of 
the American continent, in the first place by the perfec- 
tion of its discipline and instruction, and in the second 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 



415 



by the reform of abuses and the improvement of its 
regulations. 

" At the time when the command was given to me," 
said he, in giving account of those improvements, " the 
condition of the army was deplorable. The desertions 
had reached an average of two hundred a day. The 
express offices were full of packages containing citizen's 
clothing, intended for the deserters, so eager were the 
parents, wives, brothers, and sisters to assist the flight 
of their relatives. I can show that, when I took com- 
mand, the number of absent from the army had reached 
the figures of 2922 officers, and 81,964 non-commis- 
sioned officers and soldiers. They were scattered all 
over the country, and the greater part were absent 
without known cause. 

" My first object was to prevent desertions. When I 
had succeeded in that, I turned my attention to the 
means necessary to bring back the absent, and to 
make the men present as comfortable and contented as 
circumstances would permit. I made regulations as to 
furloughs and leaves of absence, so that every one could 
be away a few days in the course of the winter. Dis- 
loyal officers were dismissed the service as soon as the 
proof of their disloyalty was brought to my knowledge. 

" Important changes were introduced in the different 
departments of the staff, especially in that of inspec- 
tions, which was completely organized and intrusted to 
the most competent officers I could find. Convinced 
that idleness was the great evil in all armies, I made 
every effort to keep the troops busy, particularly at 
drill and manoeuvres, as often as the weather per- 
mitted. 

" The cavalry was consolidated in a separate corps, 
and put in the best condition ever known in our service. 
Whenever the state of the roads and of the river per- 



41 6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

mitted, expeditions were started out to attack the 
pickets and advance posts of the enemy, and to forage 
in the country he occupied. My object was to encour- 
age the men, to incite in their hearts, by successes, 
however unimportant they might be, a sentiment of 
superiority over their adversaries. In that object, we 
succeeded in a remarkable manner. 

" During this period of preparation, the army made 
rapid progress, and, at the beginning of April, justified 
the highest hopes. Everybody was full of confidence 
and devotion to the cause, and I saw that it was a liv- 
ing army, an army truly worthy of the Republic." 

The picture is not too strongly colored ; it gives an 
exact idea of the transformation which was brought 
about during the months of February and March. Let 
us add that, in the matter of desertions, the President 
came to General Hooker's assistance by issuing, on the 
loth of March, a proclamation which offered pardon 
free from all punishment (except the loss of pay) to all 
soldiers then absent without permission, provided that 
before April i they had rejoined their regiments, or 
presented themselves at the rendezvous provided for 
that purpose in the different States. The measure had 
good results ; but to put an end to desertions there is 
only one way, to shoot the deserters. Now, that could 
not be done without first submitting the verdict of 
death to the President, who, in the goodness of his 
heart, approved the proceedings, but always modified 
the sentence. The army commanders, then, must be 
invested with the necessary power to carry out the sen- 
tences of the courts-martial. From this time, military 
executions took place, and desertions became as rare as 
before they had been frequent. 

This period of repose for the army in general was, on 
the contrary, a time of great movement amongst 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 417 

the colonels and brigadier-generals. It was the time 
of year for promotions, and, since the ist of January, 
the publication of the list sent in for confirmation by 
the Senate was looked for with anxiety. When at last 
it reached us, on the 25th, it was a cruel disappoint- 
ment for those who should have appeared in it, on 
account of their services, but whose names had been 
put to one side in favor of political intruders. 

In this appeared, again, one of the most flagrant 
vices of the system applied to army affairs. The list 
for promotion did not come from military recommenda- 
tion. Services rendered, proved capacity, acquired 
rights appeared in the list only in a small proportion. 
The greater part were put there from outside recom- 
mendation, and, above all, by political influence. 

The Army of the Potomac had to suffer from this 
more than any other ; for the Army of the Potomac 
was the army of the President, the army of the Senate, 
the army of the House of Representatives, the army of 
the press and of the tribune, somewhat the army of 
every one. 

Everybody meddled in its affairs, blamed this one, 
praised that one, exalted such a one, abased such a one, 
gave his opinion on everything which concerned it, 
and labored for his friepds who happened to form a 
part of it. 

However, the superior ofificers, whose promotion de- 
pended on the President, were far from having clean 
hands as regards this state of affairs. While openly 
complaining of it, they neglected nothing which would 
enable them to profit by it. Every permission to be 
absent was, for them, an opportunity to visit Washing- 
ton, in order to put in play, per fas et nefas, what influ- 
ence they could bring to bear on the President, in 
favor of their promotion. These efforts, when opposed, 



41 8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

too often degenerated into intrigues, in which the 
baseness of the means employed was added to ardor 
of soHcitation. Example is not wanting of a calumny- 
being the weapon pfcked out of the slime to injure a 
rival. Finally, the number and importunity of the 
solicitors became so great that the War Department 
had to limit the stay of officers on leave in the capital 
to twenty-four hours, unless their families were there, 
or they resided there. 

Fortunate were those who had friends or protectors 
among the influential members of Congress, especially 
in the Senate. If their record of service was good, 
justice was done them ; if it was not, favor took the 
place of it. The most important thing was to bring 
direct pressure to bear on the President, and this press- 
ure could not come from the military authorities. They 
were not the ones who voted the budget, made the 
laws, directed the people, and guided the government. 
With the best intentions, Mr. Lincoln could not resist 
certain influences, which he managed less for himself 
than for the good of the country. 

Nevertheless, there was no such thing as corruption 
in this intervention of the members of Congress. In 
exerting themselves actively for their friends, or for 
the officers who were particularly recommended by 
them, they generally believed they were doing an act 
of justice. Abused by false representations, they were 
not far from considering their proteges as unappreci- 
ated heroes, especially when those proteges belonged 
to influential families, and had numerous friends in their 
electoral districts. 

What, then, became of the officers truly meritorious, 
who had only the recommendations of their superior 
officers to plead their rights .'* They were left outside, 
mortified, discouraged with well-doing, and champing 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 



419 



the bit, until, better informed, they obtained also, by 
political influence, the recompense which would not be 
accorded to their military merits. 

General Hooker, who had undertaken and carried 
out many improvements, was not strong enough to put 
his hand on these abuses. His most urgent and well 
founded recommendations could not strive against the 
contrary currents, and in the pell-mell of incongruous 
promotions one can see the names of lawyer politicians, 
entire strangers to the military career. These gentle- 
men were ambitious of the privilege of promenading 
up and down the streets with their shoulders adorned 
with the star. For this reward, their patriotism on sale, 
they consented to rally around the government policy 
and the war for emancipation. 

An order from the War Department, dated August 
18, 1862, well directed that "henceforth, no nomina- 
tion for major or brigadier general will be made, except 
to officers of the regular army, for meritorious and dis- 
tinguished services during the war, or to volunteer 
officers who have given evidence in the field of the mili- 
tary talents requisite for the functions of a general 
officer." But the orders of the Secretary of War were 
not obligatory on the President, and the senators 
showed in this case that they cared nothing for the 
order. 

However, when the mass of promotions submitted to 
the Senate for confirmation, in a lump, reached it, the 
Senate collectively refused to sanction what each one of 
its members had contributed to individually. The list 
was returned to the President as much exceeding the 
number of forty major-generals and two hundred briga- 
dier-generals fixed by law. All beyond that number 
must be cut out. The reader can imagine what stren 
uous efforts were made for friends. 



420 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The President was besieged, pursued, persecuted on 
all sides. Everybody had the better right to be re- 
tained on the chosen list, nobody admitted the possi- 
bility of being rightfully among those to be dropped. 
Mr. Lincoln lost his time and trouble, and, in despair, 
asked Congress to free him from his embarrassment by 
passing a law adding to the number of general officers. 

Congress willingly assented to this and authorized 
the supplementary creation of thirty major-generals and 
seventy-five brigadier-generals, "provided," it was added, 
" that the officers promoted by virtue of this act shall 
be chosen from amongst those who have distinguished 
themselves by valorous and meritorious conduct in their 
duties." The condition was an excellent one in itself. 
It pacified the conscience of Congress, but it must 
have greatly troubled that of " Honest Abe," for it was 
not possible for him to follow the prescription. 

In this desperate strife for stars, General Halleck 
preserved the immobility of a DetLs Tominns. Mr. 
Stanton supported the recommendation sent from the 
army and General Hooker went to Washington several 
times to urge its retention. Unhappily, the list agreed 
on at the War Department had to pass through the 
White House in order to reach the Senate, a danger- 
ous passage, sown with pitfalls and traps. In that pas- 
sage, my name, as well as others, disappeared twice, to 
give room, without doubt, for that of some political 
favorite whose name had never been mentioned in the 
army. 

During this time we were blockaded in our tents by 
the rain, the mud, and the snow. When the sun shone 
again, we mounted our horses and rode from camp to 
camp, to learn and comment on the news, discuss our 
hopes, or give vent to our discontent. Changes suc- 
ceeded each other in the different commands. In the 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. J.2 1 

Third Corps, Stoneman returned to the cavalry, Sickles 
succeeded him temporarily while awaiting his confirma- 
tion as major-general. Berry, also promoted, passed to 
Hooker's old division. Birney kept the command of 
Kearney's old division as brigadier-general. He was 
among those dropped out, and was irritated, not with- 
out reason, at seeing an officer commanding a brigade 
under his orders pass over him to a higher rank. 

March 4, the day fixed for the adjournment of Con- 
gress, arrived and the famous list was not yet confirmed. 
Now, on that day the promotions made by the Presi- 
dent in the interval between the two preceding sessions 
became void for want of confirmation. For the major- 
generals, the commands might remain the same by vir- 
tue of their commissions as brigadier-generals, which 
emanated from the President. But the case of the 
brigadier-generals was very different. Their commis- 
sions as colonels of volunteers, coming from the Gov- 
ernors of the States, had terminated by the fact of 
their promotion. They were no longer on the muster- 
rolls of their old regiments, where they had been 
replaced, and, not being colonels, ceasing to be gen- 
erals, they no longer belonged to the United States' 
service. Those of them who had been officers in the 
regular army retook their grades. 

The President had to call the Senate in extra session 
to remedy this state of affairs, and, after several days, 
the generals on foot were again in the saddle. 

All this excitement did not lessen the fruitful activity 
which General Hooker had impressed on the improve- 
ment of the army. This progress extended even to the 
smallest details of the service. Nothing escaped his 
solicitude. Thus, during the campaign of the Penin- 
sula, Kearney had contrived to render all the men of 
his division recognizable by a little piece of red cloth 



422 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sewed on their caps. He had in this way developed in 
them an esprit dc corps, encouraged their amour proprc, 
and controlled the stragglers or cowards, who could not 
stray from the ranks or mingle with the other troops 
without being instantly recognized. Hooker took up 
the idea and extended it to all the troops in his com- 
mand. Each corps had its particular badge. The First 
Corps, the disc ; the Second, the trefoil ; the Third, the 
diamond ; the Fifth, the Maltese cross ; the Sixth, the 
Greek cross ; the Ninth, the shield ; the Eleventh, 
the crescent ; the Twelfth, the star. Each of these 
badges was red for the first division, white for the 
second, and blue for' the third. Each staff also re- 
ceived a special flag with its badge and distinctive 
color. It was square for the corps, oblong for the 
division, triangular for the brigade. In this way, 
whether on the march or in action, the generals were 
always easy to find. 

The military tribunals did not remain idle. During 
February, I formed part of a commission, presided over 
by General Howard, to try several inhabitants of the 
country, charged with having aided the flight of our 
deserters by selling them clothing. One of them was 
also accused of brigandage. 

The creation of the commission was connected, as 
will be seen, with the measures taken by General 
Hooker to stop desertion. Those found guilty were 
condemned to severe punishments. The one charged 
with brigandage escaped a verdict of death only from 
the insufficiency of proof. Another, who had made his 
house a sort of clandestine rendezvous for concealing 
and assisting deserters, was condemned to six months 
of hard labor and to have his house razed to the level 
of the ground. 

If the commission showed itself more indulgent 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 



423 



toward the others, it was in consideration for the fright- 
ful misery in which the war had plunged those unfortu- 
nates. Robbed by the marauders from both armies, 
they lived from day to day on what they could pick up 
here and there. When deserters presented themselves 
and offered them money for some old clothes hanging 
in a corner, the temptation was irresistible, for with 
that money they could procure the food wanting in 
their houses. And, besides, if they refused to sell the 
clothing, how could they prevent the deserters from 
taking it by force '> These searched the house from 
cellar to garret and appropriated whatever pleased 
them. If they consented to give a few dollars in ex- 
change, how could the money be refused .' How could 
they reject the bread which, for some days at least, 
assured the existence of the family } 

Those who lived within our lines had much less to 
complain of. Instead of plundering them, the soldiers 
often supported them ; what little they had, at least, 
was secured to them. However, there were very few 
remaining in the country except the poor, in their huts. 
The country houses of any importance were nearly 
always abandoned ; the negro quarters were deserted, 
and in such cases everything was invariably pillaged. 

Our pickets extended to a long distance. The ser- 
vice was done by brigades. Each corps furnished a 
brigade, and relieved it every three days. Along the 
part of the line guarded by the Third Corps were two 
inhabited dwellings, one occupied by a Protestant min- 
ister, the other by a Fredericksburg lawyer. The cler- 
gyman was from Baltimore. He was living peaceably 
and comfortably in that city, when he had the unfor- 
tunate inspiration to accept the charge of two churches 
near Falmouth. Mark that this was in 1862, when the 
expedition was preparing against Richmond. But such 



424 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

was the blindness of Southern men that they fully be- 
lieved Fredericksburg beyond all danger from the rav- 
ages of war, sheltered, as it was, behind the rebel army, 
which was still occupying the Manassas lines. The 
Northern army, they said, could never penetrate 
beyond that. 

Reasoning in this manner, the reverend gentleman 
came with his wife and daughter, bringing also his 
slaves. They found a pleasant country house for rent, 
in the vicinity of the two churches, and established 
themselves there, without troubling themselves about 
the future. But suddenly the Confederate army fell 
back on Richmond, leaving the country exposed to all 
manner of incursions. Immediately the slaves de- 
camped. Soon the armies, passing and repassing 
through the country, devour everything on their pas- 
sage. The flocks are dispersed, and disappear ; one of 
the two churches is burned, the other is pillaged, and, 
instead of there being two parishes without a pastor, 
there is one parish without parishioners. As a matter 
of course, there was no longer a question as to receiving 
a salary, but, on the other hand, there was no rent to 
pay. The poor man was ruined. Qit ^tait-il alle faire 
dans cette inandite gaUre ? 

I found him there during the winter, looking with an 
indifferent eye on the falling of the finest trees in the 
world, under the axe of our pioneers. His philosophical 
calmness showed that they did not belong to him. His 
table was supplied by the general stationed there ; his 
wife, troubled with deafness, busied herself silently 
with the household duties ; his daughter sang minstrel 
songs in the parlor, souvenirs of Baltimore, and in the 
kitchen the starved cow chewed her cud. 

One can hardly form an idea of the rapidity with 
which the forests disappear around an army in winter 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 



425 



quarters. When we arrived before Fredericksburg, at 
the end of November, the country surrounding the city 
was covered with great woods of oaks and pines. At 
the end of February everything was cleared off, not 
only around our camps, but even at a considerable dis- 
tance. The country, so picturesque a few months be- 
fore, now had the dull aspect of a vast and muddy 
desert, where nothing gave relief to the eye, save a few 
trees, spared here and there, because they sheltered the 
hut or the tent of a general. 

In the first days of March, we had to go so far to get 
the daily supplies of wood to burn, and the transport 
was so slow and painful for the men, and fatiguing for 
the animals, that the most of the camps had to be re- 
moved. Our division moved back near the railroad to 
Acquia Creek, on the shore of a deep bay of the Poto- 
mac, in which the small transports unloaded their car- 
goes at the wharf of Belle Plain. There we camped 
literally in the midst of a wood on the summits of lit- 
tle stony hills, favorable to the draining-off of the water, 
and drier at all times than the muddy plain from which 
we had come. The roads, laid out usually in the hol- 
lows, were, it is true, in a horrible condition ; but we 
soon opened others. 

Soon the weather began to improve ; the sun became 
warmer ; fine days were more frequent, and more fre- 
quent also became drills and reviews. Fetes of different 
kinds enlivened the camp life. There was a marriage in 
Berry's division, under a tent, accompanied by every 
kind of festivity. The bride had brought with her 
from Washington an escort of ten groomsmen and ten 
bridesmaids. The groom was a captain in the Seventh 
New Jersey. If he had been colonel, he could not have 
had more pompous nuptials. Generals were present 
in an imposing number. There was dancing, drinking. 



426 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

banqueting. The commanding general himself was 
present, full of gayety and life. Then succeeded a 
ball, given by General Sickles at his headquarters, 
where, as usual, there was feasting to the heart's 
content. 

Sickles was one of the striking figures of this war. 
More as a man than as a general officer; in many ways 
a typical American. He was gifted in a high degree 
with that multiplicity of faculties which has given rise 
to the saying that a Yankee is ready for everything. 
Still young, he has tried many things, and always with 
success. At the bar, in politics, in diplomacy, in the 
legislature, in arms. He has been a lawyer and poli- 
tician in New York, Secretary of Legation in London, 
member of the Legislature in Albany, representative in 
the House of Representatives at Washington, general 
in Virginia, envoy extraordinary to Bogota. And in all 
these positions he has acquitted himself well. 

He has a quick perception, an energetic will, prompt 
and supple intelligence, an active temperament. Natu- 
rally ambitious, he brings to the service of his ambition 
a clear view, a practical judgment, and a deep knowl- 
edge of political tactics. When he has determined on 
anything, he prepares the way, assembles his forces, 
and marches directly to the assault. Obstacles do not 
discourage him, but he never attempts the impossible, 
and as he has many strings to his bow, if one breaks, 
he will replace it by another. 

In him, ability does not exclude frankness. He likes, 
on the contrary, to play with the cards on the table with 
his friends and against his enemies. As much attached 
to the former as hostile to the latter, he will be as 
eager to serve the former as to combat the latter. 
But let a friend deceive him, or an enemy cease to 
oppose him; then both become equally indifferent to 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 



427 



him, and he goes on his way, troubling himself no 
further about them. 

Gay, prepossessing, spirituel, he rarely fails to make 
a good impression, even upon those who may be the 
least prepossessed in his favor. Pleasonton, an old 
West-Pointer, regular army ofificer, and known as given 
to criticism, said of him : " I never met a general who 
cooperated more harmoniously on the field of battle, nor 
one who more promptly seized a suggestion from an- 
other person." 

When the war broke out, Sickles was in the ranks of 
the Democratic party, to which he had always belonged. 
During the time of discussion he had been among those 
most conciliatory in regard to the pretensions and ag- 
gressions of the South. But when the sword was 
drawn he was one of those most ready to throw away 
the scabbard, saying that he considered himself by so 
much the more obliged to fight the rebellion as a sol- 
dier that he had been ready to make the greatest con- 
cessions as Congressman. Disgusted with the bad 
faith of his old allies, and irritated at the false position 
in which they had put the Democrats of the North, he 
considered his party as in duty bound, more than any 
other, to carry on the war d, ojttrajice, unto the complete 
triumph of the national government. 

Imbued with these ideas, he raised in New York a 
brigade of volunteers, to which he gave the name which 
serves for the device of the Imperial State. The Ex- 
celsior brigade was attached, from the beginning, to 
Hooker's division, in which Sickles continued to serve 
until he came to the command of it. Promoted major- 
general, and confirmed by the Senate, he was assigned 
by the President to the command of the Third Corps, 
where he soon attained great popularity. 

Nor did General Birney wish to be behind in merry- 



428 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

making. He gave, in his turn, a fete, which made an 
epoch in the remembrances of the division. There 
were races, with and without hurdles, on the drill- 
ground. Colonel Prince Salm-Salm came near break- 
ing his neck. Some of the other officers had fine tum- 
bles in the mud. But generally these falls were more 
comical than dangerous. After returning, there was a 
collation at headquarters, we had illuminations, fire- 
works, and a representation of negro minstrels in a 
theatre put up for that purpose. Nothing was want- 
ing for the success of the entertainment, at which the 
whole army was present. 

Finally, at the beginning of April, Mr. and Mrs. 
Lincoln came to visit the Army of the Potomac. On 
the 6th, there was a review of all the cavalry com- 
manded by General Stoneman ; on the 7th, a walk 
through the camps of several divisions, and a collation 
at Sickles' headquarters ; the 8th, another review, of 
four army corps at once, the Second, the Third, the 
Fifth, and the Sixth. On the 9th, the presidential ex- 
cursion ended by a visit to the Eleventh and Twelfth 
Corps, near Acquia Creek, where Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln 
embarked to return to Washington. 

As soon as the President had left, there was a redoub- 
ling of activity everywhere. On the second day after, 
an order was issued to consolidate into five companies 
of infantry, or six of cavalry, every regiment of volun- 
teers reduced below half the regulation maximum. The 
same measure was applied to the batteries of artillery. 
Its objects were : to facilitate the consolidation of regi- 
ments; to reestablish the normal proportion between the 
number of soldiers and ofificers, and, finally, to relieve 
the treasury of a large and useless expense. 

On the 13th, the movement commenced by the de- 
parture of the cavalry. At the same time, our men 



HOOKER COMMANDlNCx THE ARMY. 429 

received eight days' marching rations (biscuit, coffee, 
sugar, and salt), three days' rations of salt pork, leaving 
room in their knapsacks but for one shirt, one pair of 
drawers, and one pair of stockings. Everything else 
was to be left behind, in charge of the quartermasters. 

We were ordered to be ready to march that same 
night, but the heavens always reserved their right to 
interpose their veto, and on this occasion did not fail to 
use it by sending us rain in torrents, which put our de- 
parture, for the time, out of the question. Operations 
already begun were necessarily suspended, to the great 
disappointment of General Hooker, who wished to begin 
the campaign before losing a certain number of regi- 
ments, whose time was about to expire. 

These regiments were divided into two classes. The 
first contained those who had enlisted for two years at 
the outbreak of the war. There were forty of these 
regiments in the Army of the Potomac, and, making 
deductions for the three -year men found in their 
ranks, the total amounted to 16,472 officers and men 
who would be discharged during the months of March, 
April, May, and June. 

The second list was cornposed of the nine-month 
regiments, who were called out under an unfortunate 
resort to expedients, at the time of the defeats of 
McClellan and Pope. The fatal consequences, to which 
the authorities had closed their eyes at that time, were 
developed now without possible remedy. These men, 
who had taken up arms having had no opportunity 
to use them, who had learned their trade in the camps 
during the winter, were now to be sent home at the 
very time when their services, become really efficient, 
w^ould be most useful to the army. There were eight 
Pennsylvania regiments in this list, amounting to 6421 
men. 



430 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

This made more than twenty-two thousand muskets 
to be withdrawn from our ranks at the opening of the 
campaign ; to which were to be added nineteen other 
regiments whose time would expire in the months of 
August, September, and October, forming a total of 
11,097 men. Thus, during the year, and in the Army 
of the Potomac alone, thirty-four thousand men would 
leave us. It was, then, not without reason that Gen- 
eral Hooker was in a hurry to begin operations. He 
wished to strike a blow while he had his whole force. 

We have seen what the position of the Confederates 
was on the other side of the Rappahannock. It had not 
changed since the battle of Fredericksburg. As then, 
they occupied at the end of April the line of fortified 
heights extending from Skenker's Creek to the point 
where they touched the river above Falmouth. On 
this side, however, they had extended their lines by 
covering, with fortifications occupied with troops, the 
only two feasible crossings between Falmouth and the 
point where the Rapidan empties into the Rappahan- 
nock : Banks and United States fords. And these two 
fords were passable only in the summer. Everywhere 
else the steep and wooded banks of the two rivers pre- 
sented a barrier which could not be passed. It was a 
stretch of twenty to twenty-five miles to defend, but 
such was his confidence, inspired by the defensive ad- 
vantages of the ground, that Lee thought he could 
.safely send Longstreet's corps to operate on the south 
of the James, against Peck, who occupied Suffolk with 
a small force. The rebel army, then, did not number 
more than sixty thousand in front of Hooker, when, on 
April 27, the latter began his movement on Chancel- 
lorsville, at the head of more than a hundred thousand 
men. 

Chancellorsville is not a city, a village, or even a 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 43 I 

hamlet. It is a solitary house in the midst of a culti- 
vated clearing, surrounded on all sides by woods, which 
have given that region the name of Wilderness. A 
veritable solitude, impenetrable for the deploying or 
quick manoeuvring of an army. So that it was not 
there that Hooker had planned to give battle. But 
it was a well chosen point for concentrating his forces, 
three or four miles southeast of United States Ford. 
F'rom that point he could strike the enemy, taken in 
reverse, or, at least, force him to come out of his posi- 
tion, as weak from the rear as it was strong from the 
front. If the Confederate army fell back on Richmond, 
it presented its flank to our attack, and, if he were 
stopped or delayed by some obstacle and pursued at the 
same time by a force stfong enough to vigorously press 
his rearguard, his retreat might be changed to a rout. 
If, on the contrary, he marched towards Chancellors- 
ville to meet us, he was forced to accept battle in the 
open field, in unforeseen conditions, exposed to attack 
by a pursuing army as much as on the Richmond road. 
Attacked at the same time both in front and rear, Lee 
ran the chance of being cut in pieces, and would be very 
fortunate if he saved the remnant of his forces. 

Such was Hooker's well concerted plan, the secret 
of which was confided to no one, not even to his most 
intimate friends amongst the officers. 

The point on which everything depended for success 
was to be able to assemble the army at Chancellorsville 
before the enemy could oppose him at that point. This 
part of the plan was as admirably executed as it had 
been ably conceived, and it can be truly said that up 
to that point General Hooker showed himself to be an 
able tactician. 

In the first place, he detached all his cavalry, under 
the orders of General Stoneman, to cut the enemy's 



432 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

lines of communication with Richmond. The under- 
taking was not very dangerous, for Stoneman took with 
him more than ten thousand horse, who could meet with 
no serious resistance. Under his instructions, after 
crossing the Rappahannock, he was to divide his force 
into two columns : one, under command of General 
Averill, was to threaten the force the enemy might 
have at Culpeper and Gordonsville, while the other, led 
by Stoneman himself, would attempt to accomplish the 
main object of the expedition. Both columns were to 
come together at a given point, to attack the enemy in 
case he retreated directly towards Richmond, and to 
harass him if he took the road to Gordonsville. 

At the same time that the cavalry started, the Elev- 
enth and Twelfth Corps (Howard and Slocum) marched 
for Kelly's Ford, above the mouth of the Rapidan and 
twenty-seven miles distant from Fredericksburg. There, 
on the 28th, they were met by Meade's corps (the 
Fifth), which was to join them. The passage of the 
Rappahannock was made that night without opposition. 
On the 29th, that of the Rapidan was effected happily, 
in two columns, and, the movement continuing with a 
promptness of good augury, the three corps arrived at 
Chancellorsville on the afternoon of the 30th. Their 
advance opened United States- Ford, behind which the 
Second Corps (Couch) was waiting, in order to throw 
across a pontoon bridge and join the other corps, which 
was done before night. Hooker himself arrived at the 
appointed rendezvous, to finish up the work he had so 
brilliantly commenced. 

While these important movements were being accom- 
plished on one side, the attention of the enemy was 
concentrated in the opposite direction, towards what 
seemed to him to be a prelude to an attack in force. 
In fact, on the 29th, at daybreak, while our right, hav- 



HOOKER COMMANDING THE ARMY. 433 

ing already crossed the Rappahannock, was advancino- 
towards the Rapidan, a bridge of boats was established 
by force at the same point where, on the 13th of Decem- 
ber preceding, Franklin had passed the river, and the 
Sixth Corps (Sedgwick), after having driven back the 
enemy's sharpshooters, advanced into the plain below 
Fredericksburg. A little further down, the First Corps 
(Reynolds) did the same thing, and, finally, the Third 
Corps (Sickles) took position in reserve, ready to cross 
over in its turn if necessary. This was the force de- 
signed to hold the enemy in his intrenchments by the 
menace of an immediate attack, or to pursue him, if, 
discovering the danger which threatened him, he should 
abandon his position. 

During that day the demonstration succeeded to our 
best wishes. The enemy appeared only to prepare his 
defence on the side where it was not intended to attack 
him. 

The next day, the 30th, the Confederates not stirring, 
Hooker called the Third Corps to Chancellorsville. 
We started immediately, making a forced march in 
order to arrive in time for the decisive attack. That 
night we made our fires at a short distance from the 
bridge across which the Second Corps had marched in 
the morning. 

So there, on the 30th, at night, the Confederates, 
still motionless in their positions in rear of Fredericks- 
burg, prepared for an attack on their right, indicated 
by the movements of the two corps of Sedgwick and 
Reynolds, while in rear of their left four other corps 
were already united, and about to be joined by a fifth. 
On one side, Sedgwick, with forty thousand men, includ- 
ing Gibbon's division of the Second Corps, which, hav- 
ing its camp in full view of the enemy, had not yet 
moved ; on the other. Hooker, with about seventy thou- 



434 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sand men in a position which seemed an assurance, in 
advance, of a victory. " Now," said he, in an order of 
the day to the army, " the enemy must flee shamefully 
or come out of his defences to accept a battle on our 
ground, where he is doomed to certain destruction ! " 
And every one repeated, " He is in our power ! " 
Nobody doubted that, before two days, all our past re- 
verses would be effaced by the annihilation of Lee's 
army. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

CHANCELLORSVILLE. 

First encounter with the enemy — Capital fault — Defensive position of the 
army — Advance position of the Third Corps — Engagement of Bir- 
ney's division — Jackson's attack on the right — Rout of the Eleventh 
Corps — Counter charge of Berry's division — Death of Major Kee- 
nan — Artillery saved by General Pleasonton — Night encounter — 

Episodes — Death of Stonewall Jackson — Renewal of the battle 

Accident to General Hooker — Remarks on the position — Bayonet 
charge — Movement backward — Sedgwick carries Fredericksburg 
Heights — Combat at Salem— The Sixth Corps at Banks Ford — 
General retreat. 

What Hooker called " our ground " to give battle on 
was about half-way from Chancellorsville to Fredericks- 
burg, outside of that region covered with almost 
impenetrable woods, where we were at that time. On 
that side the country was open and favorable for the 
manoeuvring of an army. It was then important to get 
there at the earliest possible moment. Two broad 
roads led to it, coming together near a church called 
Tabernacle, while a third road, running near the river, 
led to Banks Ford. By these three roads. Hooker re- 
newed his movement in advance, on Friday morning, 
May I. Slocum, with the Twelfth Corps, held the right 
by the plank road ; Sykes, with a division of the Fifth 
Corps, supported by Hancock's division of the Second 
Corps, advanced in the centre, along the principal road, 
called the Macadamized road (although it was not) ; 
and Meade led the column composed of Humphreys' 
and Griffin's divisions along the road near the river. 
The three other corps, the Second, the Third, and the 
Eleventh, were to follow the movement, so as to come 

435 



438 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

remain'fed in reserve between Chancellorsville and the 
river, received orders to advance. In the woods, on the 
right and left we passed a great number of troops, 
massed without apparent order and filling all the small 
clearings. Soon we came out on the Fredericksburg 
road, in front of which stretched our line of battle. 
Berry's division, which had preceded ours, deployed in 
the open ground around the farm. As we turned to 
the right, to take position further on, the skirmishing 
fire told us that the enemy extended along our front, 
on the other side of some great woods, which concealed 
his movements from us. He had his batteries already 
in position on that side, for the shells and balls reached 
the troops while they were deploying. One struck a 
colonel of the Excelsior Brigade. We saw him fall from 
his horse, without letting go his bridle rein, although 
he was dead. His men hastened to him and carried off 
his body. 

To discover the enemy's movements, five or six dar- 
ing men had climbed to the top of the highest trees, 
from which they had a view over the surrounding 
woods. The position was very dangerous, for they 
might become targets for the rebel sharpshooters. In 
order to guard against it as much as possible, they 
kept up a continual shaking of the trees in which they 
were ; they could be seen thus balancing in the air 
more than a hundred feet above the ground, braving 
the double danger of the enemy's bullets and a fall — 
death in either event. 

Firing ceased a little after dark. The moon rose 
calm and smiling, and nothing troubled the tranquillity 
of the night. 

The next morning, May 2, an order was sent to the 
First Corps, to join us. Sedgwick then remained alone 
below Fredericksburg with the Sixth Corps and Gib- 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



439 



bon's division of the Second ; twenty-six to twenty-seven 
thousand men in all. 

At Chancellorsville our line was disposed in the fol- 
lowing order: — On the left, the Fifth Corps and Han- 
cock's division extended from the vicinity of the river 
to the turnpike, facing towards Fredericksburg ; in the 
centre, the Twelfth Corps, forming an obtuse angle with 
the left, and covering the road in front and parallel to 
which it stretched ; then, in the same direction, Bir- 
ney's division of the Third Corps ; finally, the Elev- 
enth Corps on the right. Two divisions of the Third 
Corps (Berry and Whipple) and one division of the 
Second Corps (French) were held in reserve. 

In the morning, the enemy contenting himself with 
attacking Hancock's pickets, without approaching his 
line, Hooker began to be troubled about what was pass- 
ing in our front, beyond the curtain of woods, which 
limited our view in that direction. He sent forward 
the troops of the Twelfth Corps, who, being received 
by a deadly fire, could not force their way, and were 
compelled to fall back, leaving the general commanding 
in the same uncertainty as before. But almost imme- 
diately, through an opening in the woods before the 
Twelfth Corps, there appeared a column of rebels march- 
ing rapidly from the left to the right, and which conse- 
quently presented its flank to our whole line of battle. 

This movement threatened our right, which appeared 
to be unprepared for it. As it was the opposite side 
from that by which the enemy had advanced from 
Fredericksburg, less disposition was made against an 
attack there than elsewhere. The whole Eleventh 
Corps prolonged the general line parallel to the road. 
But a small brigade thrown back barred this road with 
two guns, resting on nothing, leaving our extreme right 
completely in the air. 



440 FOUR \'EARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

General Hooker had -visited that part of the line in 
good season, without prescribing any change. Only, 
when the movement of the enemy revealed to him the 
possibility of an attack from that direction, he sent 
some additional instructions to General Howard, which 
had no other effect than to cause an advance of the 
pickets. There was no change made in the disposition 
of the troops. The fact is that General Hooker did 
not believe in the danger of such an attack, and that he 
preferred to regard the movement as a retreat of the 
army of Lee on Gordonsville. Otherwise he would not 
have telegraphed a few hours later to General Sedg- 
wick : — " Take Fredericksburg and everything you 
find there, and pursue the enemy vigorously. IVe know 
that he is in full retreat, endeavoring to save his trains. 
Two of Sickles' division are upon him." 

General Slocum was far from sharing that confidence. 
Towards noon I met him visiting our front to see how 
we were placed, and examining attentively the position 
of the Eleventh Corps. 

" Let me recommend you to fortify yourself as well 
as possible," he said to me. "The enemy is massing a 
considerable force on our right. In two or three hours 
he will fall on Howard, and you will have him upon 
you in strong force. You had better protect yourself 
as well as possible, at least by an abatis on your 
front." 

I was about to follow his advice when the division 
received orders to advance. We moved forward out of 
the woods, and crossed the open ground which ex- 
tended in our front. It was an effort to cut in two the 
column of the enemy, which continued to defile before 
us, and to sweep away what must be his rearguard. 

Our advance was delayed in the woods. We had to 
build or rebuild some bridges over some brooks. We 




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CHANCELLORSVILLE. 44 1 

had to cut our way painfully through the thick under- 
brush, a network of branches and briars. But these 
detentions afforded the Second Division time to support 
us. Finally, by main force, our first regiments reached 
the crossroads on which the rear of the enemy's 
column was marching. A brisk fire was opened imme- 
diately ; our men charged upon the enemy surprised at 
seeing an attack made upon them from a thicket which 
they thought absolutely impenetrable. They fell into 
confusion. Some fled, others surrendered ; the Twen- 
ty-seventh Georgia resisted stoutly ; but it was soon 
surrounded and compelled to lay down its arms. More 
than five hundred prisoners remained in our hands, and 
were immediately sent to the rear. 

We had in this way, continually on the run, reached 
some abandoned furnaces. Birney had just formed the 
division in a square across the road by which the 
enemy had disappeared, and he waited the .arrival of 
the Second Division, reenforced by two brigades, one 
from the Eleventh and one from the Twelfth Corps. 
The men took breath, laid off their knapsacks, and re- 
loaded their pieces. The officers laughed and con- 
versed together, relating the different episodes of the 
combat. 

Suddenly the noise of a distant firing came through 
the air. Our ranks became silent, as if by magic. 
Each one listened, and turned his head towards Chan- 
cellorsville. There is no more doubt ; there is where 
the fight will be made. The musketry fire increases 
and rolls uninterruptedly. Soon the roar of cannon 
breaks out like a clap of thunder, at first by a volley of 
batteries, then by shots hurried, furious, as in combat 
d oiitrance. 

In a moment the aids passed at a gallop along the 
front of our regiments. The command rang out, from 



442 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

one end of the division to the other, Forward ! Double 
quick ! March ! And we were soon swiftly returning on 
the run by the road over which we had just come. 
Hurry up ! Jackson has crushed our right ; the Elev- 
enth Corps is in an utter rout. Hurry up ! Quick ! or 
we will be cut off ! 

Harassed and out of breath, yet in good order, we 
finally reached the edge of the open ground that we had 
first crossed on leaving our lines. Our artillery was 
still there, but turned against the same woods we had 
occupied a few hours before. Firing had ceased. 
Jackson's troops filled the intrenchments which the 
Eleventh Corps had raised, and the rebel flag floated 
behind the abatis which, in the morning, had protected 
the front of our division. Evening had come. We 
silently formed in line of battle near the artillery, and 
awaited the fate which the night had in store for us. 

We theji heard a detailed account of what had hap- 
pened in our absence. 

General Lee, having found our lines too strong to be 
carried on our left or centre, had agreed to Stonewall 
Jackson's proposition to lead an attack on our extreme 
right. The movement was not without risk, for, in order 
to do it, it was necessary to march on one single road, at 
a short distance from our front, a long column of twenty- 
five thousand men, and to divide in two parts an army 
which, altogether, was yet inferior in number to ours. 
But the position taken since the evening by General 
Hooker was so absolutely defensive, the difficulty of 
moving so as to get out of it so manifest, that the 
general commanding the enemy thought that a few 
demonstrations would suffice to keep him on the de- 
fensive. Jackson commenced his movement early in 
the morning, and, although the head of his column 
had been noticed between nine and ten o'clock, he 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 443 

continued to march with impunity along our front the 
greater part of the day. When, at last, in the after- 
noon, our division was sent to cut him in two, we were 
only able to reach his rearguard, which merely has- 
tened his march. 

Jackson, having gone beyond the point where our 
lines extended, turned to the right, by a road which led 
into the turnpike, near an inn known as Old Wilder- 
ness Tavern, and massed his forces there for one of 
those terrible attacks which have rendered his name 
celebrated in this war. This movement was made 
known to General Devens, who commanded the last 
division in that direction, and to General Howard, his 
corps commander, by two soldiers sent out to recon- 
noitre. Several times a brisk fire was opened upon 
the line of pickets of the Eleventh Corps, showing the 
presence of the enemy's skirmishers. Yet, notwith- 
standing all that, no new measure was taken, and the 
small brigade across the road remained alone, with two 
regiments in reserve, to meet an attack against our 
right, already turned. 

About five o'clock, the picket firing was suddenly 
renewed, then redoubled, and came nearer. Soon the 
men appeared falling back hurriedly on both sides of 
the road. A moment more, and the enemy, emerging 
from the woods in deep masses, with the rebel yell, 
threw himself upon the few regiments which were op- 
posing him. The latter endeavored to resist, but they 
were quickly swept away and beaten down. The 
remainder of the division, taken in flank, melted 
away, was broken, and rolled upon the next division, 
which it carried with it ; while along the road, in the 
midst of the fleeing multitude, the wagons, the ambu- 
lances, horses and mules, which had been impru- 
dently left in that part of the field, were precipitated 



444 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

pell-mell. In vain, a few superior officers endeavored 
to stop the flight. In order to meet the attack it was 
necessary to change front to the rear, and, during this 
movement, their ranks were broken and carried along 
with the torrent. It was not an engagement, it was a 
rout, in the midst of which a few regiments, keeping 
their order, endeavored to hold together. Two brigade 
commanders, Schimmelpfennig of Schultz's division, 
and Bushbeck of Steinwehr's division, succeeded in 
effecting their change of front, and fought until, over- 
whelmed and carried away by numbers, they were com- 
pelled to fall back on the Twelfth Corps. All the rest 
went on in the greatest confusion towards Chancellors- 
ville and the road to the Rappahannock. 

In the midst of the rout and tumult, Hooker hurried 
up. Very fortunately, he found at hand, back of the 
road on which the enemy was sweeping everything 
before him, Berry's division, the one which he had so 
long commanded. " Forward ! " he cried, " with the 
bayonet ! " The division, supported by Hay's brigade 
of the Second Corps, advanced, with a firm and steady 
step, cleaving the multitude of disbanded men as the 
bow of a vessel cleaves the waves of the sea. It struck 
the advance of the Confederates obliquely, and stopped 
it with the aid of the Twelfth Corps artillery. 

Jackson's attack, arrested on the left and in front, 
was thrown towards the right, that is to say, into the 
woods between the road and the intrenchments aban- 
doned by the Eleventh Corps. It was drawing near 
the position that Birney had occupied in the morning, 
and thus a new, terrible, and imminent danger pre- 
sented itself to us. In the open ground, and in front 
of the woods, and two or three hundred yards from the 
intrenchment, the division had left its artillery without 
protection, while advancing towards the furnaces. The 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 445 

guns were there on low ground, in full view, under the 
guard of the cannoneers only. Multitudes of flying 
men had taken this direction, to escape more quickly, 
and wagons, ambulances, and pieces of artillery rolled 
at a gallop across the field, in the hope of finding, 
further on, an opportunity to get back into our lines. 
The moment was most critical. Who should save the 
guns from almost certain capture ? 

At this instant. General Pleasonton, who had accom- 
panied us in our forward movement, returned with two 
regiments of cavalry, which he had found it impossible 
to use to advantage in the midst of the thickets. 
While marching, one of his aids, who had gone on in 
advance, came back in haste to announce that the 
Eleventh Corps was fleeing in disorder, and that cav- 
alry was necessary to stop it. Pleasonton put his col- 
umns at a gallop, and, on arriving, recognized at a 
glance the imminence of the peril. Then, consulting 
only his inspiration in the responsibility he was about 
to take, he assumed the direct command of the artil- 
lery at that point. 

To put it in position, he must have at least ten or 
twelve minutes, minutes more than precious in such a 
case. He called Major Keenan of the Eighth Pennsyl- 
vania, and said to him : "Major, charge into the woods 
with your regiment and hold the rebels in check until I 
can get these pieces into position. It must be done at 
all hazards." 

"General, I will do it," simply replied Major 
Keenan, 

It was nearly certain death. He knew it ; but the 
honor of the duty assigned, and the importance of the 
service to be done, lighted up his features with a noble 
smile. He had but four or five hundred men. Riding 
at their head, he charged furiously at the enemy, ad- 



446 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

vancing victoriously, and fell lifeless on the line whose 
advance he seemed to still bar with his dead body. 
This intrepid charge caused the attack to hesitate for a 
short time, and Pleasonton gained the ten minutes 
which he required. 

All he had to do more was to clear the ground of 
stragglers and vehicles, and to put in position, near the 
two batteries of the division, the one he had brought 
with him, and a few pieces of the Eleventh Corps, 
which had retired in that direction. When the remains 
of the Eighth Pennsylvania cavalry had fallen back to 
the right and left, Pleasonton had twenty-two guns in 
line, loaded with double charges of canister, and ready 
to open fire. In the rear, the Seventeenth Penn- 
sylvania, half concealed by a roll of the ground, 
awaited the moment to charge in its turn, in case of 
necessity. 

Soon the wood was full of rebels. A moment later, 
their flags appeared behind the intrenchment ; a volley 
of musketry lighted up the top of the works, and a mass 
of men bounded over with a fierce yell. Now was the 
time. The twenty-two pieces made but one detonation, 
followed by a deep silence. When the smoke rose, 
everything had disappeared. The mass of men had 
been swept away at a stroke, and, as it were, anni- 
hilated. 

This lightning stroke marked the limit of Stonewall 
Jackson's success. The firing still continued behind 
the cover of the intrenchments, and some attempts 
were even made to renew the charge against the guns ; 
but the crushing power of their fire, and, probably, also 
the uncertainty as to what might be concealed by the 
swell of the ground where were the cavalry and the 
teams, prevented the enemy from advancing out of 
the woods. Sickles soon arrived, followed by Whipple's 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



447 



division, Birney's division came back in its turn, and 
the contest ceased on both sides. 

All was not over, however, for the day. It was to 
be closed by the fifth act of the drama, in which Bir- 
ney's division was to play the principal role. 

It was ten o'clock at night. The moon, high in 
the heavens, gave but an uncertain light through the 
vapors floating in the atmosphere. No fire was lighted 
in the woods or on the plain. Federals and Confed- 
erates concealed in the shadows the secret of their 
respective positions. 

The brigade commanders were called to General Bir- 
ney to receive their instructions. When Ward returned, 
the colonels assembled around him. We learned that 
a night attack had been determined on. The plan was 
to charge into the woods with the bayonet, striking 
down the enemy where we found him, and, marching 
right before us, to join Berry's division on the turnpike. 
The troops were disposed as follows : Ward's brigade 
deployed in the first line without intervals between the 
regiments ; Graham and Hayman's brigades in the sec- 
ond line, breaking by the right of companies in advance. 
It was expressly forbidden to reload the muskets after 
the first fire. 

The colonels communicated their orders in a low 
voice to their company officers, the latter to the ser- 
geants, and on to the soldiers. The preliminary disposi- 
tions were made without noise. The higher officers 
were on foot behind the file-closers. When everything 
was ready and nothing was stirring along the line, the 
signal was awaited in a silence so profound that one 
could have heard the flight of a night-hawk. The moon 
looked on with its usual serenity. 

After a few minutes of waiting which appeared long 
a movement ran along the line. General Ward had, in 



448 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

a Steady and measured tone, ordered, Forzvard ! which. 
was repeated in low murmurs from one to another. We 
started at a quick step, gun on shoulder, neither hurried 
nor loitering. 

There were perhaps two hundred yards to pass over 
before reaching the woods, whose dark line appeared in 
front of us. All eyes vainly sought to penetrate the 
silent obscurity. Every one instinctively hurried his 
step, and we could soon distinguish the outline of the 
intrenchments sketched out by us in the morning. Each 
one said to himself : " They are there, taking aim, with 
the finger on the trigger. They are letting us come 
near, to be the more sure of their fire. At twenty paces 
they will fire their volley. But those of us not struck 
down will be upon them before they can reload their 
guns, and then — " 

The nearer we approached, the lower dropped the 
point of the bayonets of the front rank. 

At a distance of twenty steps there was no sign of 
movement. Well, it was said, the contest will be at 
bayonets' point ; so much the better. 

In such moments one has an excessive delicacy of 
hearing. A cracking of branches and a footstep on the 
dead leaves were heard on our right. It was the Ninety- 
ninth Pennsylvania, which was advancing into the 
woods without encountering any one. In an instant, 
we were there in our turn. The enemy — I do not 
know why, even now — had neglected to occupy the 
border of the woods. He was farther back, in a line of 
intrenchments more complete and on higher ground. 
Perhaps, also, we surprised him in the midst of 
some movement preparatory for the next day's battle. 
However that might have been, profiting by the fortu- 
nate accident, without seeking the cause, we continued 
to advance through the thicket, but not in as good order. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 449 

We had moved forward about fifty yards, and my 
regiment was crossing a rough and muddy ravine, when 
a voice cried out, " Halt ! who goes there ? " Nearly 
at the same time one shot, then ten, twenty, a hundred ; 
the word Forward ! was heard on all sides ; a loud hur- 
rah responded, and the bloody contest commenced. 

The ground on which we found ourselves was not 
only very wooded, but also very rough. There were 
unequal little hillocks and small winding ravines, at the 
bottom of which crept or stagnated the water from 
springs or from rainfall. The trees grew very irregu- 
larly, scattered, here high, there bushy, and covered with 
thorns. The line of the brigade was broken in an 
instant : the regiments obliqued to the right or the 
left, led astray by the slope of the ground. The com- 
panies were mingled together while crossing the obsta- 
cles ; the left of the Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania was 
thrown over into my right. The Third Maine, on the 
other hand, was separated from my left. My regiment 
itself was divided into two parts. We ran to one side 
to reestablish order, and on the other the companies 
dashed forward on the run. Some carried the in- 
trenchments before them without firing a shot ; others 
recoiled before a deadly fire. The defence was as con- 
fused as the attack. Terrible at some points, at others 
it was a mere nothing. But, instead of ceasing, the fire 
redoubled on our side. In spite of orders, the men re- 
loaded their pieces, some while marching, others posted 
behind trees. 

The second line, entering in its turn into the woods, 
carried away by the noise of the firing, began to fire 
also. A hundred voices were immediately raised above 
the noise of the tumult : " Stop firing there below ! 
You are firing on us ! " A few men fell, struck from 
the rear. Then all dashed forward, pell-mell, as they 



450 F(jur years with the pot(3mac army. 

were able. The enemy, broken already at several 
points, did not await the shock. They disappeared, 
running, leaving not a man in the intrenchments. 

The confusion was extreme. I had around me about 
a hundred men of the Thirty-eighth, mingled with 
others of different regiments. They were brave men. 
They marched with mine, without thinking of profiting 
by the opportunity to slip away. For the rest, I did 
not trouble myself about the companies out of my 
sight. I knew they were well commanded, and all 
inflamed with honorable rivalry between those of the 
right, belonging to the old Thirty-eighth, and those of 
the left, belonging to the old Fifty-fifth. I had but 
one thing to fear, which was that the desire of each 
to surpass the others might carry them too far. 

However, the repeated hurrahs showed clearly that 
the Third Maine had advanced farther than we had. 
We hurried forward to rejoin them, the more eagerly 
inasmuch as four of my companies would be with it. 
The ranks being reformed as well as possible, we again 
took up our march, crossing obliquely a second hollow. 
We had scarcely commenced to ascend the opposite 
slope, when, at a distance of fifty yards, the crest burst 
into a flame like a volcano, and sent us a hail of bullets. 
Happily for us, the enemy, deceived by the darkness, 
had fired too soon. The avalanche of lead passed, 
whistling, over our heads. Hardly a man was hit. We 
fell back towards the left, to turn the position, follow- 
ing the curve of the ravine, and there we found a fire 
by file from the same quarter where the Third Maine 
must have passed. Where was the enemy ? Where 
were our men ? We could not tell anything about it. 
In this obscure labyrinth of ravines and hillocks, of 
dwarfed thickets and giant trees, we had lost our direc- 
tion. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 45 1 

How could we find it again ? We were fired on from 
all sides ; from the front, from the right, from the left, 
and even from the rear, where the fragments of the 
second line, scattered like ours, marched at hazard, and 
fired in the same manner. The moon was hidden ; we 
could not see ten steps. Around me, men fell or disap- 
peared. The part of the wood where we were had be- 
come the focus to which all the firing converged. The 
bullets struck the trees all around us ; shells crossed 
their sparks from all directions, and filled the air with 
the noise and flash of their bursting. The groans of the 
wounded, the orders of the officers, the oaths of the sol- 
diers, the whistling of the balls, the roaring of the 
conical projectiles, the crackling of the branches, the 
rolling of the fusillade, the thunder of the artillery, 
— everything united in a concert infernal. 

I was there joined by Colonel Pierson, of the First 
New York, He belonged to the second line, and had 
hardly twenty men with him. He endeavored to lead 
forward those who were giving way. Half a dozen of 
the latter had taken refuge behind an epaulement, 
where they were cowering. We tried to make them 
march ; but it was of no use, and I had no time to 
lose. 

With a handful of men, who still followed me, 
I turned my steps towards a point where the firing 
seemed to have ceased. All at once, I felt the ground 
moving under my feet, and cries issuing from it. It 
was a square hole, from which the dirt had been taken 
out, without doubt, for the intrenchments. Five or 
six poltroons had lain down there flat on the ground, 
literally packed like sardines in a box. We passed 
over them, and continued our advance. 

In the midst of a clearing, there was growing a great 
tree. Around its trunk five men were crowded, think- 



452 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ing they were protected from the fire. There were 
two on one side, and three on the other. The precau- 
tion was of little use, where the balls came from all 
quarters. 

A few steps further on I met an officer, going in the 
opposite direction. He was alone, and appeared to be 
looking for his company. 

" Have you seen any men of the Thirty-eighth .■' " I 
asked him. 

" I do not know ; I saw some troops in that direc- 
tion ; but they belonged to the Twelfth Corps, and we 
were fired upon. A nice mess ! " grumbled he. " The 
devil himself would not know where he was." 

Nevertheless, the information was useful to me. It 
served to set me right. Knowing the position occupied 
by General Slocum, I turned immediately to the left, 
I walked as fast as possible, putting aside the small 
branches with the point of my sabre. I thought I 
recognized a path which must lead to the turnpike. I 
immediately took it, hoping to find my lost companies 
there. 

Passing around a thick bush, a man ran against me. 
He wore a light blue jacket (color of the uniform of 
the old Fifty-fifth), trimmed with black on the sleeves. 
The man recognized me immediately. 

" Don't go that way, colonel," said he to me. " The 
rebels are in force a few steps away. They hold the 
line of the road by which we advanced out of the 
woods this morning, and are picking up all who pass. 
They have taken a good many prisoners from us, and I 
came near being gobbled up myself. A wounded man 
warned me in time, and told me that General Ward 
had been taken, with two or three officers of his staff." 

While listening to him I had turned about to retrace 
my steps. I saw that I was alone with my informant. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



453 



The last men who had followed me had taken a differ- 
ent direction. 

It appeared quite improbable to me that General 
Ward had been taken prisoner at the extreme left of 
his brigade, in the very direction where, as he well 
knew, the greater part of the force of the enemy was. 
But, if the report were true, the command devolved 
upon me, and, without believing it, I resolved to find 
out about it. The melee had finished, evidently to our 
advantage. The two lines of rifle-pits taken from the 
enemy were vacant. To the continual fusillade had 
succeeded the occasional shot, and the shells burst only 
at intervals. Soldiers were going back and forth look- 
ing for their regiments, or helping the wounded. The 
dead were lying alongside of the living. 

On returning towards the edge of the woods, I recog- 
nized my lieutenant-colonel walking behind me. 

" Colonel Allason," I said to him, immediately, 
" where are our men .'' " 

" All around, colonel ; at least, I suppose so. The 
companies of the right have just gone out of the woods, 
where the Fourth Maine occupies a part of the in- 
trenchments taken from the enemy. Two or three 
other regiments have the same orders that we have, to 
reform near the guns. But five companies are lacking, 
of whom I have no news since the commencement of 
the action. Were you with them .-* " 

"No," I told him. "They took the lead from the 
beginning, and must have reached the main road where 
Berry's division is." 

On the open ground we found, in fact, one half of 
the regiment, around which rallied, from time to time, 
the men strayed away during the contest. General 
Ward was near there, inquiet about two officers of his 
staff who were missing. We did not know whether 



454 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

they were dead or prisoners. The latter supposition 
was the true one. This was, without doubt, what had 
given rise to the report I had heard. 

By inquiring of every one, and sending out in search 
of them, I finally found out what had become of my 
missing companies. 

Three of them, belonging to the old Fifty-fifth, find- 
ing the ground easier than elsewhere, had advanced 
under the command of Captains Williams and Dema- 
sure and Lieutenant Suraud. But they had not ad- 
vanced faster than the company of the Thirty-eighth, 
commanded by Captain Brady. They charged the 
intrenchments together, overcame the force they found 
there, and, after a moment's halt, saw a short distance 
away the flashing of the fire from a battery of artillery. 
The idea of carrying the battery came to them imme- 
diately, and, with one accord, they took that direction. 
We must believe that, in the tumult, the cannoneers did 
not hear them approach, or that, if they were seen, the 
direction from which they came caused the gunners to 
hesitate. However that may be, they advanced right 
up to the mouths of the guns. 

One of the first to leap into the battery was a great 
German, nearly six feet high, named Johann. He wore 
in the front of his cap a red lozenge, the distinguishing 
mark of the First Division, Third Corps. 

" Hello ! who are you ?" cried one of the cannoneers. 

" Thirty-eighth New York," cried Johann, brandish- 
ing his bayonet. 

"Hold on! don't fire!" cried a score of voices at 
once. "This is the Twelfth Corps, General Slocum." 

And my men, completely mystified, recognized Gen- 
eral Slocum himself, in the midst of the artillerymen, 
revolver in hand, ready to be slain at his pieces rather 
than not defend them at all risks. The g-eneral com- 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



455 



plimented the officers on the vigor with which they had 
led the charge, and the four companies were put in 
line to defend the artillery they had so nearly attacked. 

The last company to hear from was one belonging to 
the old Thirty-eighth, commanded by Captain Alt- 
house. The captain, without troubling himself about 
what was going on elsewhere, or turning to right or 
left, had marched straight ahead, with well closed ranks. 
He fortunately crossed the two intrenched lines, and 
continued his march without stopping. Reaching a 
piece of woods thicker than the rest, he saw himself 
surrounded and summoned to surrender. All resist- 
ance was useless. He had advanced directly into what 
appeared to be the enemy's lines. The captain, with 
chagrin, was about to surrender his sabre when a joy- 
ous voice called out, in a shout of laughter, " Well, 
that is a good joke ! This is the First Division." 

The company was in the midst of a brigade of Berry's 
division. It was the only one, to my knowledge, which 
arrived at its destination. 

At that time we were still ignorant of the most 
important event of that nocturnal combat. We had 
taken two rows of rifle-pits from some of the enemy's 
regiments, but at a very heavy cost to us. But what 
gave the engagement the importance of a victory gained 
for us was the fact that Stonewall Jackson, the most to 
be dreaded of our adversaries after Lee, had fallen, 
mortally wounded, a few steps from us in the same 
woods, a witness of a melee as bloody as it was confused. 

Encouraged by the day's success, full of confidence 
in the fortunes of the morrow, Jackson had made his 
disposition to throw himself on our rear, and cut off 
our line of retreat to United States Ford. After having 
himself overlooked some changes in the disposition of 
his troops, he had advanced out of his lines, with a few 



456 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

officers of his staff, in order to see himself the exact 
position we occupied. In this way he reached the 
turnpike, where he had before him Berry's division, 
where the attack commenced against the most advanced 
of his regiments in the woods. In an instant he recog- 
nized that it was something more serious than a skir- 
misher's alarm. He turned his horse to reenter his 
lines, and took the most direct road. His troops were 
under arms, eyes and ears open, as may be imagined. 
At the noise of horses galloping, they thought it was a 
charge of cavalry, and fired. Jackson fell, struck by 
several bullets, one of which broke his arm. Two or 
three of his ofificers were killed or wounded. The 
others made themselves known. A litter was has- 
tily brought. The general was placed thereon, and 
they hurried to get him into his own lines. They had 
scarcely started when one of the bearers fell, struck by 
a ball or by a piece of shell. The general was roughly 
thrown to the ground. The fall aggravated his wound, 
and doubled his suffering. He survived several days, 
and succumbed under an amputation. 

General Jackson, without being a great general of an 
army, was an admirable corps commander. He ex- 
celled above all in the conduct of detached operations 
which were trusted to him, and in the spirit he knew 
how to impart to the important attacks which made 
his reputation. An old West-Pointer, he loved the 
profession of arms, and had studied the science thor- 
oughly. He had entire confidence in the success of 
the cause to which he was devoted. Austere in relig- 
ion, he was not far from believing himself one of the 
instruments chosen by the God of Israel to deliver his 
new people from another Egyptian servitude. He died, 
then, in the fulness of his illusions, consoled in his death 
by the victory for his side. 



CHANCEIXORSVILLE. 



-57 



Thus ended the second day of May, 1863. 

We had about two hours of repose. Before day- 
break the brigade was assembled, and we received an 
order to form line behind the artillery, in the field 
which extended between the Chancellorsville house 
and the woods which we had swept clean of living- 
rebels, while leaving there a large number of our own 
dead. It was on that side a renewed attack was 
expected. By leaving Birney's division where it was, 
along with Whipple's, we would have had an excellent 
defensive position at that point, for we should have 
taken the enemy between two fires, both in front and 
in flank. It was deemed preferable to draw back the 
whole Third Corps between the house and the woods, 
perpendicular to the main road. The result was that 
the enemy, finding the ground free, which we had just 
quitted, promptly took possession of it, and placed his 
artillery there, giving him a converging fire, without 
hindrance, upon the centre of our position. And yet 
the retreat of our corps was not made without difificulty. 
Although the day had hardly broken, the brigade which 
brought up the rear was attacked as soon as it was put 
in motion. But General Graham, who commanded it, 
held back forces much superior to his own, and ef- 
fected a retreat in good order, without breaking. 

Then began a desperate battle, the brunt of which 
the Third Corps had still to bear. The enemy ad- 
vanced in three lines sustained by strong reserves, 
between the main road and the ground where his guns 
replaced those which Pleasonton had so well defended. 
The movement then was simply the continuation of that 
which, the evening before, had swept away the Eleventh 
Corps. The resistance was terrible as the attack was 
desperate. The musketry and artillery fire mowed 
down the Confederate ranks ; but the more they fell 



458 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the more came on, and they continued to advance, cry- 
ing : "Remember Jackson!" They were furious on 
account of the death of their general, and eager to 
avenge him. 

During this time Ward's brigade vi^as receiving blows 
without being able to return them. The bullets 
ricocheted in our ranks, shells burst around us, and the 
balls which passed over the first line found a mark in 
the second. As we were without cover, we had caused 
the men to lie down, to avoid useless losses ; the officers 
alone remaining standing. In spite of this precaution, 
the number of wounded increased more and more, 
when we received an order to throw ourselves rapidly 
on the other side of the road, where a violent fire had 
broken out, and extended into the thicket. 

In order not to return to the first phase of the day's 
action, I will say that, up to this time, the troops of the 
Third Corps had to sustain alone the furious attack of 
which we have just spoken. They defended the ground 
foot by foot, until they had fired their last cartridge, 
and were compelled to fall back to the rest of the army, 
saving their artillery, but abandoning that part of the 
plateau of Chancellorsville to the enemy. 

During the fight, General Hooker had been wounded 
on the threshold of the Chancellorsville house. He 
was standing under a verandah,, watching the approach 
of the Confederates, when he was violently knocked 
down by one of the columns sustaining the roof, which 
had been struck by a cannon ball. The shock was so 
great that he remained unconscious during the most of 
the battle, and did not appear to have recovered his 
faculties during the rest of the day, — which, I think, 
explains many things, and especially why the Third 
Corps received neither support nor reenforcements at 
the time when it had the most urcrent need of them. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



459 



Let us return now to the woods where our brio-ade 
had just disappeared. 

Generally, on reading the description of a battle, one 
witnesses, as it were, from the upper air, as formerly 
the Olympian divinities witnessed the heroic combats 
of the Greeks and Trojans. We see the movement of 
the right, the left, and the centre of each army; we see 
the reenforcements arrive, the reserves put in action, 
and in that view of the whole, well pictured, the details 
are of little account. But to a colonel who is in the 
action matters are presented under an entirely different 
aspect. Of the general field he sees nothing ; of the 
details very little. Unless good fortune gives him 
an exceptional position, his visual horizon does not 
extend beyond his brigade, and is often bounded by the 
line of his regiment. Where he receives the order to 
go, there he goes ; forward, backward, to the right, to 
the left. His sphere of action is limited to take his 
regiment in on a charge ; to hold it steady on a re- 
treat ; in every event to execute rapidly and correctly 
the changes of position which he is directed to make. 
Aside from that, the battle may be won or lost ; he 
knows nothing about it. He will learn that later. 
What happens elsewhere is none of his business. 

As an example, here is a copy of my pencil notes, 
May 3, during the battle of Chancellorsville, from the 
time when I left off my story : — 

" Being able to penetrate the thicket only on foot, I 
turned my horse over to Couillou (a sapper), with orders 
to bring him to me by a detour, to a clearing towards 
which we were going. Arriving there, neither man 
nor horse was to be seen. The fire continued with ex- 
treme violence. It must be Berry's division which 
stops the enemy's movements on this side. They are 
firing through the thickets, without being able to 



460 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

charge. Our men hold firm. No hurrahs, but a deaf- 
ening noise of musketry. What the devil has become 
of Couillou .-* ' 

"The firing came nearer and stronger at the centre. 
Clearly the enemy was driving us back at that 
point. 

" We are now on the left centre, near the Twelfth 
Corps. We have hurried forward with our utmost 
ability. It seems that the time is critical. We formed 
our line twenty or thirty paces from the first, which, 
after all, had not given way. In this direction, the 
rebels are giving voice to their sharp yell, and our men 
reply by distinct hurrahs, as if there were not enough 
noise without that ! As we had a great number of 
wounded, we were made to fall back to the edge of a 
road, where the men can at least lie down in the ditch. 
The bullets do us much less injury ; the shells continue 
to trouble us. A great column of black smoke towards 
our left, then sheets of flame ; the Chancellorsville 
house is burning. At the rate they are going on in 
our front, they will soon use up all their ammunition, 
and it will be our turn to take their place. The 
wounded are continually passing through our lines. 
One of them, half naked, is as black as a negro. He 
runs shrieking towards the ambulances. It is an artil- 
leryman, wounded by the explosion of a caisson. Couch 
passes by at a light trot, a little switch in his hand, as 
usual. Sickles goes by in his turn at a walk, with a 
smiling air, smoking a cigar. ' Everything is going 
well,' said he, in a loud voice, intended to be heard. 
Then, in a lower tone, giving me his hand, he whis- 
pered in my ear a congratulation and a promise. It 

' On leaving me, Couillou had been struck on the head with a piece 
of shell. A drummer caught my horse, and led him to the baggage in 
the rear, saying 1 had been killed or wounded. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 



461 



would appear that I won a star in the fight by moon- 
light, the night before. 

"We returned to the right, always on the double 
quick. The enemy's artillery rains projectiles upon us. 
Our lot for to-day is to receive blows from all sides, 
without being able to return them. A lieutenant of 
the Third Maine is cut in two by a shell bursting in his 
body ; legs thrown to one side, the trunk to the other. 
One of our batteries has silenced the one which 
troubled us so much. General Berry has just been 
killed near us. An excellent man and a brave soldier. 
An hour of respite. It is as hot as summer ; my cloak 
oppresses me, and I have no horse ! Nothing in my 
stomach for twenty-four hours, but a cup of black 
coffee and a big swallow of whiskey, which a staff 
ofificer gave me a short time ago. 

" Fifth change of position to the rear. Interval em- 
ployed in covering ourselves with light intrenchments. 
This time, we are in the front line. The two other 
brigades of the division return at last to join us. Gen- 
eral Mott is wounded. Colonel MacKnight, of the One 
Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania, is killed ; also Col- 
onel Shylock, of the Fifth Michigan, In General 
Birney's staff, two officers are wounded, Clarke and 
Walker. The latter, division inspector, belongs to my 
regiment. He is said to be maimed for life. 

" Two batteries have just come into position on our 
line. At half after four, the firing recommences, and 
stops at five o'clock. 

" We learn that the First Corps arrived last night, 
coming from Fredericksburg, and that the Sixth car- 
ried the heights above the city this morning." 

One can judge by this extract how much a colonel 
sees and knows about a battle in which he has all the 
time manoeuvred his regiment. Here, now, is what 
occurred : — 



462 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Every effort of the enemy was against the Third 
Corps. When that corps, out of ammunition, began 
to fall back to the rear, from the right to the other side 
of the road, Stuart, who succeeded Jackson, extended 
his attack on his left, hoping to take us in reverse, and 
reach our line of retreat towards the Rappahannock. 
There he struck French's division of the Second Corps, 
which not only held its ground, but even compelled its 
assailants to fall back. It was to sustain him that 
Ward's brigade had been ordered into the woods. 

In this part of the field, our right was facing to the 
west, while our centre looked south, and our left east. 

In the meanwhile, Lee, having learned of the success 
of Stuart on our right, and seeing us all engaged in 
that direction, attacked our left centre vigorously, so 
that for a moment it was in danger of being broken. 
Upon which our brigade was hurried over to reenforce 
the Twelfth Corps. 

The danger past, Stuart returned to the charge, 
reenforced by new troops, and now forced French to 
retire. This was the reason for our precipitate return 
near the clearing where we had first taken position. 

But our comrades of the Third Corps were not yet 
out of the difficulty, notwithstanding their having fallen 
back and changed front. The enemy, who had just 
effected a junction of his two wings on the plateau of 
Chancellorsville, and who had not been able to force, at 
the angle to our left, the intrenched line of our advanced 
posts admirably defended by Colonel Nelson A. Miles, 
now commenced again the attack against Sickles with 
renewed vigor. Our men, short of ammunition, had no 
other resource than the bayonet. They availed them- 
selves of it brilliantly and with great success. The 
New Jersey brigade, amongst others, commanded by 
General Mott, broke the first line of the Confederates, 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 463 

and, advancing, took flags and trophies from their sec- 
ond line. 

General Hooker, recovering from his unconsciousness, 
although still feeling the effects of the accident, had re- 
sumed the command of the army, left for some hours to 
General Couch. He gave the order to retire to a 
stronger line of defence which he had had traced out 
the night before by the engineer officers. There the 
other two brigades of the division came to join us. 

Thus ended the third day of May, 1863. 

Our new position rested, at one end, on the Rappa- 
hannock, the other on the Rapidan. On the left it 
faced southeast, on the right southwest, making a very 
open angle, at whose apex, opposite the enemy's centre, 
was formed a great trilateral work. This was the point 
occupied by the Third Corps. As the army made no 
further movement until it repassed the river, we can 
leave it behind its breastworks and join the corps at 
Fredericksburg. 

On the afternoon of the 2d, Hooker, seeing his right 
broken in, and the Third Corps compromised by Jack- 
son's attack, had thought immediately of making a di- 
version from the other side, which would turn Lee. He 
sent an order to General Sedgwick to cross the Rappa- 
hannock as quickly as possible, and march out on the 
Chancellorsville road, attacking and destroying what- 
ever force might bar his way. Sedgwick received the 
despatch about midnight, having already crossed the 
river by virtue of a preceding order directing him to 
take the BowHng Green road and " any other." He 
immediately changed his dispositions, and marched on 
Fredericksburg without loss of time. His instructions 
were : " You will leave your train behind you, except 
the mules carrying ammunition, and will march so as to 
be in the neighborhood of the general in command at 



464 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

daylight. You will probably strike the rear of the forces 
commanded by General Lee, and, between you and the 
major-general commanding, the latter hopes to make a 
finish of his adversary." 

The silence as to the fortified heights seemed to im- 
ply that the general-in-chief supposed that they had 
been stripped of troops since the morning ; without 
that, the contest to be entered on at that position 
should have entered explicitly into the calculation in 
reference to the time allowed to Sedgwick to reach the 
neighborhood of Chancellorsville. Now, not a company 
had been withdrawn by the enemy from that strong 
position, which was still defended by Early's division, 
reenforced by a brigade. 

The Sixth Corps was surrounded by a cordon of rebel 
pickets, whose firing gave warning of the march as soon 
as it began. Early, forewarned, prepared for an attack. 
Immediately, on entering Fredericksburg, Sedgwick 
sent four regiments to try the heights ; they were 
received with a deadly fire, and were compelled to re- 
tire. The preparations for a final assault occupied the 
last hours of the night. It would appear that they were 
not moved with the promptness which circumstances 
demanded, for it was not till eleven o'clock in the morn- 
ing that the two columns of attack charged the in- 
trenchments. Colonel Spear of the Sixty-first Penn- 
sylvania, who led the right, was killed. Colonel Johns 
of the Seventh Massachusetts, commanding the left, 
was severely wounded ; but, in spite of the vigor of 
the defence, Marie's Heights were carried by main force. 
At the same time Howe's division carried the enemy's 
position on the left, and the whole line was ours, 
with a part of the artillery and a large number of 
prisoners. 

Without loss of time, the troops reformed, and the 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 465 

Sixth Corps advanced on the Chancellorsville road, 
leaving Gibbon's division of the Second Corps at Fred- 
ericksburg, as the order of General Hooker had directed. 
Those of the enemy who had retired in that direction 
were driven back without stopping to Salem Heights, in 
front of Banks Ford. There Brooks' division, which 
had the advance, met with a determined resistance. It 
was then about four o'clock in the afternoon (Sunday, 
May 3). We note the hour, for at this moment the 
army under the immediate command of Hooker was 
already inclosed behind the second intrenched line, 
and the battle there was virtually finished, entirely to 
the advantage of Lee. 

Leaving in front of us what troops were necessary to 
hold us in our lines, in the cramped position which we 
occupied, hardly able to move, Lee sent MacLaws' di- 
vision, strengthened by Mahone's brigade, against Sedg- 
wick. These forces reached Salem in time to reenforce 
Wilcox's brigade, which, abandoning the guard of Banks 
Ford, had hurried on to bar the road against the 
Sixth Corps. The enemy was, at first, driven back 
from the heights he occupied, but, when his reenforce- 
ments reached him, he retook them, notwithstanding 
an obstinate resistance, forcing Brooks and Newton to 
fall back. Sedgwick's advance was arrested, when 
night came to put an end to the engagement. 

Behold us now, on Monday, May 4. What has 
become of the plan so ably conceived, so happily 
executed in the beginning.? That plan which would 
leave to Lee's army only the alternative of a shameful 
flight or certain destruction ? Hooker lost the benefit 
of everything he had done up to that time when, on 
the 1st of May, he had abruptly stopped a series of 
fine offensive manoeuvres, to take up a purely defen- 
sive attitude on his first meeting the enemy. From 



466 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

that moment he no longer attacked. He simply stood 
on the defensive, and he defended himself badly. 

On the 2d his right was swept away. That the 
Eleventh Corps, composing the right, had fought 
poorly or not at all ; that some regiments had fled, 
leaving their arms stacked, or throwing them away so 
as to run faster, is a fact that must unfortunately be 
acknowledged. But would all this have happened if 
the Eleventh Corps had been prepared to receive the 
attack from the side on which it was absolutely defence- 
less .■* We must judge matters coolly. The facts 
prove that the attack had not been foreseen either by 
General Howard or by General Hooker. The latter 
visits and examines that part of the line in the morn- 
ing, and when General Howard asks him if the disposi- 
tions made are satisfactory he replies in the affirmative, 
in the presence of General Devens, commanding the 
division placed on the extreme right. Only, on his 
return to headquarters, he sent a note to the command- 
ers of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps to direct them 
to " examine the ground and decide what positions they 
must take in the eventuality of an attack on the flank, 
in order to be prepared to receive the enemy from what- 
ever direction he might present himself." That done, 
as if to clear his conscience, and without assuring him- 
self that any modification was made of the defective 
dispositions of the Eleventh Corps, he stripped his 
lines himself by sending Sickles with two divisions to 
run after the tail of the enemy's column, when it had 
nearly all passed by. To support it, he detached a 
brigade from Slocum's command, another from that of 
Howard ; then he ordered General Pleasonton to follow 
with his cavalry, and do the enemy, " who was march- 
ing in the direction of Gordonsville," all the injury he 
could. We know the result of it. 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 467 

The following night is devoted partly to firing on 
ourselves. It might have been more profitably em- 
ployed. 

On the 3d the enemy continued to force back our 
right, and to press us strongly on our centre. He 
found before him only the Third and Twelfth Corps, 
each supported by a division of the Second. No com- 
binations, no manoeuvres. Each one defends himself 
as best he can, and in the position he is occupying, 
some by firing, others by the bayonet. And, all this 
time, one half the army remains inactive in the rear. 
The First, the Fifth, and the Eleventh (which must 
have been eager to make amends for the evening 
before) move only to fall back when the whole line 
retires to a position more crowded, and still more on 
the defensive. 

Thus we find the army paralyzed at the very time 
when the capture of Fredericksburg Heights by Sedg- 
wick, and his approach to the rear of Lee, should have 
been the signal to us for a redoubling of efforts, the 
decisive moment to throw the First Corps on the flank 
of Stuart, with the Fifth and the Eleventh Corps strike 
the centre of Lee, weakened by the loss of the troops he 
had been compelled to send against the Sixth Corps, 
and crush these forces between the two mills of iron and 
fire. Everything could yet have been saved ; but all 
was lost. Hooker was no longer Hooker. The blow 
of the miserable piece of wood which had stretched him 
senseless across the sill of the Chancellorsville house 
had left him completely shattered, and as though there 
was a cloud over his faculties. 

When General Warren, arriving from Salem, where 
he had assisted in the fight, came to report to Hooker, 
and asked him if there were any instructions to send to 
Sedgwick, Hooker replied, " None." 



468 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

However, the Sixth Corps could not be left there in 
danger of being cut in pieces without a knowledge of 
the state of affairs. Warren took upon himself to 
write to Sedgwick : " We have drawn our lines in some- 
what, and repulsed the last assault easily. General 
Hooker wishes that the Confederates would attack him 
to-morrow, if they so desire. He does not wish you to 
attack them as yet in force, unless he attacks at the 
same time. He says that you are too far from him for 
him to direct your movements. Look well to the 
safety of your corps, and keep your communications 
open with General Benham at Banks Ford, and with 
Fredericksburg. You may retire on either point, if 
you think it better to cross the river. Banks Ford 
would bring you within supporting distance of the rest 
of the army, and would be preferable to a retreat on 
Fredericksburg." 

But when Sedgwick received that despatch (on the 
4th) he had no longer any choice. Early advanced 
from the direction of Fredericksburg, reenforced by the 
troops which Lee, left free by Hooker's inaction, had 
sent to envelop the Sixth Corps. Threatened from two 
sides at once, Sedgwick was compelled to fight in a 
disadvantageous position. Howe's division, attacked 
from the direction of the river, defends itself vigo- 
rously, facing to the rear. After giving way a moment 
on the left, it gains the advantage, and ends by de- 
cidedly repelling the enemy, while, from the direction 
of the road, Brooks holds his position without much 
difificulty. 

And, during that whole afternoon, we heard the 
cannon roaring without stirring ourselves, or even mak- 
ing any pretence of moving. Did Hooker, with six 
army corps, expect that Sedgwick, with seventeen or 
eighteen thousand men, was coming to deliver him 



CHANCELLORSVILLE. 469 

from the false position in which he had placed himself? 
Or, rather, did he have any other idea than that of re- 
crossing the Rappahannock without further fighting-? 

As soon as night came on, Sedgwick took advantage 
of it to draw back his three divisions on Banks Ford, and 
the morning's sun found the Sixth Corps safe and 
sound on the left bank of the river. Perhaps Lee, 
freed from all embarrassment in that direction, would 
have tried a general attack on us, with his whole force, 
if a rain in torrents, which came on in the afternoon, 
had not forcibly delayed his preparations until the 
following day. But Hooker did not wait for the attack 
which he had desired the evening before. In the night 
of the 5th the whole army recrossed the river, without 
hindrance, and, for the second time in five months, 
returned beaten to its encampment. 

The victory cost the enemy only thirteen thousand 
men ; defeat cost us seventeen thousand. The Third 
Corps and the Sixth, together, bore half the loss. The 
other half vi^as shared principally between the Second, 
the Eleventh, and the Twelfth. As to the First and 
Fifth, they lost enough only to mention it. 

Except the small force commanded by General 
Pleasonton, the cavalry had poorly performed its mis- 
sion. Stoneman had scattered his column in every 
direction, without any appreciable result, except a lively 
alarm in the neighborhood of Richmond. Averill had 
not led his troops further than the Rapidan. 

So that we were completely beaten — beaten on 
account of the general-in-chief, who, after having pre- 
pared for his army the best opportunity for being 
victorious which it had ever had, threw to the winds all 
his advantage. For one moment he had held the enemy 
in his hand; he had only, so to speak, to stretch it 
forth, to crush him ; and he had not only allowed the 



470 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

enemy to escape, but had delivered himself up to him, 
by falling backward in such a manner as to paralyze his 
own movements. By one fault after another, and one 
error after another, he lost the opportunity to repossess 
himself of fortune's favors, and condemned one-half of 
his army to a fatal inaction, even to the humiliating ex- 
tremity of escaping by night from a position yet for- 
midable, before forces decidedly inferior to his own. 

" Heu nihil invitis fas quemquam fidere divis ! " 



CHAPTER XXII. 

INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Position of Hooker after Chancellorsville — The Presideni's letter — 
Lee's army in motion — March on Manassas and Centreville — Gue- 
rillas — Cavalry engagements — Entrance into Maryland — Welcome 
by the people — The enemy in Pennsylvania — Hooker relieved of 
his command — Meade appointed general commanding — Convent 
of St. Joseph at Emmittsburg — Bloody contest near Gettysburg — 
Death of General Reynolds — Report of General Hancock — Concen- 
tration of the two armies. 

After the battle of Chancellorsville, the position of 
General Hooker became very difficult. Already re- 
duced by seventeen thousand men, his army lost, 
besides, the regiments whose terms expired at that time. 
At the end of the month he had only about eighty 
thousand men in his command. The enemy, on the 
contrary, was strongly reenforced. The corps of Long- 
street had returned from the south of Virginia, and new 
troops had been sent to Lee, who now found his forces 
superior or at least equal to those of his adversary. 

The same change had been wrought in the morale of 
the two armies. The Confederates, exalted by victory, 
full of confidence in themselves and in their generals, 
were ready to march to new triumphs with an enthusiasm 
which corresponded with the unanimity of opinions in 
the South. Our soldiers, humiliated by defeat, shaken 
in their confidence in themselves and in their com- 
mander, were depressed by the divisions they suspected 
to exist amongst their generals, and by those which the 
Copperhead party fomented with zeal in the Northern 
States. 

471 



472 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The good feeling between the different corps was 
sensibly weakened. The Eleventh was the object of a 
general hue and cry, nobody stopping to ask if the con- 
dition in which Jackson's attack had surprised them 
did not offer some extenuating circumstances in its 
favor. Those who had suffered the most were not far 
from reproaching the others for the inaction to which 
they had been condemned ; so quickly does injustice 
germinate in adversity. Finally, the Sixth Corps was 
keenly wounded in seeing its fine conduct and its rough 
battles of two days' duration systematically depreciated, 
with the object of throwing upon its commander the 
responsibility of a defeat which was not his work. 

Materially, numerous details of reorganization had to 
be effected. The artillery was found to be out of all 
proportion with the infantry ; the cavalry, on the con- 
trary, had lost more than half its effective force, without 
profit and without glory. Pleasonton, who replaced 
Stoneman in the command, could not find five thousand 
men fit for service. To sum up, Hooker was in no con- 
dition to undertake anything, at least for some time. 
His position was perfectly characterized in a despatch 
of the President, dated May 14 : — 

" When I wrote you on the 7th, I was under the im- 
pression that perhaps by a prompt movement you 
might be able to draw some advantage from the sup- 
posed state of affairs ; that the communications of the 
enemy were broken, and that his position would be 
found somewhat injured. Now, that idea has vanished 
since the enemy has reestablished his communications, 
retaken his position, and received reenforcements. It 
no longer appears probable to me that you can gain 
anything by renewing the attempt to cross the Rappa- 
hannock. I will make no complaint if for some time 
you do nothing more than hold the enemy in check by 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 473 

demonstrations, and occasionally by some cavalry ex- 
peditions, if they are practicable, while you are getting 
your army in good condition. 

" However, if you clearly think that you can renew 
the attack with success, I will not hinder you. On 
this point, I ought to tell you that I have received, 
with much regret, information that many of your corps 
and division commanders do not give you their entire 
confidence. This would be ruinous, if true, and you 
ought, above everything, to assure yourself how this is, 
so as to have no doubt on the subject." 

Reviews began again. In our division a solemn dis- 
tribution of the Kearney cross was made to the soldiers 
and non-commissioned officers who had distinguished 
themselves the most during the war, in remembrance 
of the general whose name Jiad remained the most pop- 
ular in our ranks. Many regiments received new flags 
from their States ; but nothing of all this effaced the 
grievous memory of an inexcusable defeat. What the 
army needed to renew its moral vigor and its material 
power was neither vain orders of the day, where, through 
the empty sounding phrases, it clearly distinguished the 
entire want of exactness in the allegations ; nor useless 
reviews, where it noted principally the vacancies made 
in its ranks at Chancellorsville ; nor sterile demonstra- 
tions below Fredericksburg, where the renewed passage 
of the river by the Sixth Corps seemed a pleasantry 
much too prolonged. The remedy necessary to restore 
its tone was a direct offensive taken by the enemy, 
above all an invasion of Maryland, menacing Washing- 
ton and transferring operations to the soil of the free 
States. This was the method by which Lee, rather 
than Hooker, succeeded in restoring to us our morale. 

On the 2d of June, the Thirty-eighth, having reached 
the term of its engagement, left the army, to return to 



474 FOUR YEARS WITH THE ROTOMAC ARMY. 

New York, where it would be discharged. The men 
coming from the Fifty-fifth were transferred to the 
Fortieth, and I was definitely assigned to the command 
of the Third Brigade, the one I had commanded for a 
short time, six months before. It had but four regi- 
ments : the Third and Fifth Michigan, the Seventeenth 
Maine, and the Fortieth New York. The latter, 
formed of the remains of six different organizations, 
reached at least the maximum of the regimental 
strength. Whipple's division had lost its general, 
killed at Chancellorsville ; and, being greatly reduced 
in strength, was consolidated with the two others. I 
thus received the addition of the One Hundred and 
Tenth Pennsylvania to my brigade. For the campaign 
then commencing, the Third Corps had but two divis- 
ions : the first commanded by General Birney ; the 
second by General Humphreys. 

It was one o'clock in the afternoon of June 1 1 that 
the Third Corps received the order to march at once. 
At two o'clock we were under way. 

The general commanding was henceforth relieved 
from all uncertainty. The evening before, our cavalry, 
having crossed the Rappahannock, had encountered 
the enemy's cavalry. A very lively engagement had en- 
sued, the result of which had been to reveal to us Lee's 
presence at Culpeper with Longstreet's corps. That 
of Jackson, now commanded by General Ewell, had 
taken the advance towards the Shenandoah valley. 
There remained at Fredericksburg only Hill's corps, 
waiting to move in its turn, when the Army of the 
Potomac had left its position to oppose the menacing 
movements which were developing elsewhere. He 
did not have to wait long. 

Hooker's first duty, in fact the only imperative 
instruction which he had received from the President 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 475 

and from General Halleck, was, above all, to cover 
Washington and to protect Harper's Ferry. With 
this end he put a part of his forces in echelon to guard 
the line of the Rappahannock, and defend the fords, 
while with the rest he fell back on Manassas, along the 
Orange & Alexandria Railroad. But the enemy did 
not care to cross the Rappahannock. He continued 
his march towards the northwest, by way of the Shen- 
andoah valley. Covering his right flank by the Blue 
Ridge, whose passes he occupied by his cavalry, he 
did not delay his advance on Winchester, where the 
garrison commanded by General Milroy made very 
slight opposition to his movements. A large part of 
them were left prisoners in his hands. Seven hundred 
men detached to Berryville had the same fate ; the 
troops occupying Martinsburg fell back in haste on 
Harper's Ferry, and nothing was left to oppose the 
entrance of the Confederates into Maryland. 

While these things were going on, Hooker regulated 
his movements by those of Lee. The long, fine days 
had returned. We passed through a country ruined by 
the war, devastated by the hand of man, but to which 
the springtime brought back life and youth. If we 
halted near any house, generally on the rounded sum- 
mit of a hill, we found the dwelling abandoned and 
sacked. No doors, no windows, no furniture ; the 
lawns cut to pieces by the wheels of the trains or of 
the artillery ; the flower-beds polluted by dirty refuse ; 
remnants of the huts which had been used for tent 
supports ; but everywhere eternal Nature, smiling in 
her new dress, sowed the ruins with flowers, always 
ready to repair the evil, in the inexhaustible fertility of 
her transformations. 

If we had now to suffer, it was no longer from the 
cold or the mud, but from the heat and the dust. We 



4/6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

left the banks of the Rappahannock to follow the rail- 
road by the stations of Bealton and Catlett, where we 
camped. On the 15th, we marched by Manassas. It 
was a terrible day, under a burning sun, through a 
choking dust. We passed through great plains, sprin- 
kled here and there with low thickets. Not a tree to 
shade us ; and when we halted to allow the men in the 
ranks to take breath, and the stragglers to catch up, it 
was in open sunshine, and near some small brooklet 
with water warm and muddy. 

Sunstrokes were numerous ; suffocations more numer- 
ous yet. There were not enough ambulances to pick 
up those dropping along the road behind our columns, 
poor fellows struck down by these first summer heats. 
Nevertheless, we had to march. At Bristoe Station, 
at last, we found shade and water, on the banks of 
Broad Run. A part of those who had fallen behind 
came up to us there, and, rested and refreshed, we 
joined the Sixth Corps at Manassas Junction, about 
four o'clock in the afternoon. 

At nine o'clock at night I received orders to march 
with my brigade to Bull Run, at the point where the 
railroad bridge had long before been burnt. The night 
was dark, but the position was recognized without dif- 
ficulty, by the earthworks which still remained, by the 
burnt piles which yet appeared above the water, and by 
the line of intrenchments, behind which I disposed my 
regiments. This was the position in which, on the 
2 1 St of July, 1 86 1, the right of Beauregard's army had 
awaited the attack of McDowell on that Sunday which 
was made memorable by the first disaster of the Army 
of the Potomac. 

The next day was passed in that charming spot, 
which I recommend to all artists in search of a fine 
object for study. The little river, at that point, curves 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



477 



around a steep slope. In that space, shaded by mag- 
nificent trees, covered with wild vines, carpeted with 
thick turf, the most picturesque subjects are to be 
found on all sides. The light played through the foli- 
age ; the shade was strongly marked ; the heavens and 
the trees were reflected in the transparent water. In 
contact with that delightful nature one would prefer 
having, at least, only a palette and brush ; guns sketch 
only in red. 

On the 17th we camped on the plain before Centre- 
ville. From that point we drew near the mountains 
which separated us from the enemy. Near Gum 
Spring, where we remained five days, the country is 
very fine, and particularly favorable to the raising of 
horses and cattle. Here we found no longer pines, but 
great oaks and verdant meadows, watered by brooks 
running in the hollows. 

What spoiled the beauty of the landscape for us was 
the abundance of guerillas, who swarmed through the 
whole country. It was not possible to forage for pro- 
visions of any kind except by armed squads. Quite a 
number of soldiers and two officers were carried off 
while wandering around alone. A party of these ma- 
rauders even had the impudence to attack our wagons 
within two or three miles of camp, much to their dis- 
comfiture, however. They were immediately charged 
upon, pursued, and dispersed by a detachment of cav- 
alry. This was not enough. We ought to have hanged 
all of them who fell into our hands. 

On the 2 1 St, there was an engagement at Aldie, in 
our vicinity. We heard the cannon thundering away 
during part of the day, without knowing what was going 
on. 

It was Pleasonton, who, for the second time in three 
days, whipped the enemy's cavalry. Already, on the 



478 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

19th, General Gregg, commanding a brigade, had dis- 
lodged the advanced forces of Stuart from their posi- 
tion at Aldie and forced them to fall back beyond 
Middleburg. But the first engagement had only shown 
what Lee's movements were ; a second might, perhaps, 
produce more important results. A division of the 
Fifth Corps was put under General Pleasonton's orders, 
who, leaving two brigades at Middleburg, took with him 
only the third to support and reenforce his cavalry. On 
the 2 1st, the enemy was attacked with great vigor, 
beaten, and pursued through Upperville to Ashby's 
Gap in the Blue Ridge. There our force had to stop 
the pursuit before the artillery and intrenchments 
which defended the pass. 

In that brilliant affair Pleasonton captured two guns, 
three caissons, and a number of rebel cavalry, among 
them eight or ten officers. Stuart's loss, besides, was 
considerable in killed and wounded left by him on the 
ground at Upperville. We thus learned that the ene- 
my had only cavalry in Loudon valley. His infantry 
continued its march on the other side of the mountains 
towards Maryland. 

On the 25th, the two corps of Hill and Longstreet 
crossed the Potomac at Williamsport. Ewell's corps 
had crossed before them, and, preceded by Imboden's 
cavalry, had pushed on to Chambersburg in Pennsyl- 
vania. The same day, our army, by a parallel move- 
ment, crossed to the left bank of the Potomac at Ed- 
ward's Ferry. The field of hostilities was thus, for the 
second time, transferred to the free States. The Antie- 
tam trial was to be made over again ; but this time it 
was to be much more decisive. 

Fourteen hours of forced march brought us to the 
Monocacy River, where, without shelter, without supper, 
in a driving rain, we slept in the mud that sound sleep 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 479 

which is known only to soldiers worn with fatio-ue. 
Near us was the same aqueduct which I had been 
ordered to defend with the Fifty-fifth during the first 
invasion of Maryland. We crossed it the next morn- 
ing on the footpath, which runs along the canal without 
any protecting rail, while the artillery and the wagons 
passed over the river at a ford below us. We marched 
towards the enemy at Point of Rocks, Jefferson, and 
Middletown, where we arrived on the evening of the 
27th. From there we turned back at a sharp angle to 
reach Frederick, and thence north to Taneytown. 

In these small villages we marched by columns of 
companies, music at the head and flags flying. The 
national colors were in all the windows ; cheers saluted 
our passage. This part of upper Maryland was loyally 
faithful to the cause of the Union, differing in that from 
the rest of the State, which remained with it only from 
necessity. In Baltimore they regarded us as enemies ; 
here we were welcomed as liberators. At Frederick 
our march was almost triumphal. All the houses were 
draped ; all the women were at the windows, waving 
their handkerchiefs ; all the men were at their doors, 
waving their hats. 

In the middle of the principal street a pretty child, 
ten or twelve years of age, left a group collected on the 
sill of a house of modest appearance. Her mother had 
just given her a large bouquet, pointing me out with 
her hand. The little girl came bravely forward in front 
of the horses, holding towards me her little arms, full of 
flowers. I leaned from my saddle to receive the fra- 
grant present. And she said, with a rosy smile : 
" Good luck to you, general ! " I thanked her to the 
best of my ability. I would have liked to have em- 
braced the little messenger with her happy wishes ; 
but the march could not halt for so small an affair. 



480 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

When she rejoined her family, running along, I turned 
to kiss my hand to her in adieu. She nodded her head, 
and, blushing, hid it in her mother's bosom. " Well ! " 
said I, riding on, " that little girl ought to bring me 
good fortune." 

These encouragements cheered our hearts. They 
were as the voice of our country, of our common 
mother calling on us to defend her. Here we were 
amongst our own people. In talking of the Confeder- 
ates, the inhabitants said, "the enemy," or "the rebels." 
It was not as in Virginia, where they said, "our men," 
" our army," thus identifying themselves with our 
adversaries. So that, on crossing the Potomac, the 
army appeared to be morally transformed. A generous 
indignation caused all patriotic chords to vibrate. What ! 
Had the troopers of a Jenkins penetrated into Pennsyl- 
vania, entered Chambersburg, and levied contributions 
on the country, picking up all the horses and all the 
cattle that they could find ! And the cowardly farm- 
ers, the timorous militia, instead of defending them- 
selves, could do no better than run away, like a flock 
of sheep before a band of wolves. Ours the duty to do 
justice to these hordes of gray-jackets ; ours the task 
to drive them back into their land of slaves : — 

" Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons ! " 

Such were the feelings of the army. We were no 
longer the defeated of yesterday; we felt ourselves 
predestined conquerors of the morrow. We were on 
the road to Gettysburg. 

At Frederick, General Sickles rejoined us, and 
resumed command of the Third Corps, left, in his 
absence, to General Birney. 

The country was of a splendid richness. What a 
contrast to the one we had just left! The crops were 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 48 1 

ripening in the sunshine, covering the fields with their 
golden ears. The fences were still standing around 
the yellow wheat and the green clover. We left them 
standing, except on the borders of the woods or on the 
edge of the uncultivated fields. The roads were gen- 
erally in good condition, excellent compared to the 
Virginia mud-holes. 

But, while we were marching on pleasant and flow- 
ery roads, the general commanding found under his 
feet a thorny path. From the time when he had put 
his army in motion. Hooker had clashed continually 
with headquarters, Halleck and he had never been on 
very good terms, so that, when he took the command 
of the Army of the Potomac, he had asked the Presi- 
dent to interpose to sustain him against a hostility 
which had been manifested on two occasions before, in 
reference to his nomination. Things went along in 
this way as best they could, until the battle of Chancel- 
lorsville, although at army headquarters they had the 
idea that it was enough for Hooker to recommend a 
measure for Halleck to oppose it. A victory would 
have given the predominance to the first ; a defeat 
turned the balance in favor of the second. 

From this time on, their respective communications 
showed the existing antagonism, which the sharpness 
of style did not tend to diminish. Hooker corre- 
sponded directly with the President and the Secretary 
of War. Halleck took offence at this, and the quarrel 
became more envenomed on all questions : in respect 
to instructions solicited from the President in regard to 
military operations ; in reference to engineer officers 
withdrawn from the Army of the Potomac, to be sent 
elsewhere ; in reference to reenforcements of cavalry 
asked for and refused ; in reference to infantry cooper- 
ations thought necessary on one side and useless or im- 



482 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

practicable on the other ; and, above all, in reference 
to the defence of Harper's Ferry, which in Halleck's 
eyes was a point of vital interest to protect, while in 
Hooker's opinion it was a position to be evacuated as 
of small importance. 

Between the one pulling one way and the other 
pulling the other, the President finally found the task 
too hard to endure, and on the i6th of June he wrote 
to General Hooker: — 

" In order to prevent all misunderstanding, I now 
place you, in regard to General Halleck, in the strict 
military relation of a commander of one of the armies 
towards the commander-in-chief of all the armies. I 
never had any other intention ; but, as it seems that the 
matter has been understood differently, I enjoin as 
follows : It is his duty to give orders, and yours to 
obey them." 

Hooker had lost the game. On the 26th, in the 
morning, he wrote to General Halleck to ask authority 
to withdraw the troops stationed on Maryland Heights, 
above Harper's Ferry, who could be much more use- 
fully employed in his army. The reply was, as might 
have been expected, that Maryland Heights had always 
been regarded as a point important to our side to 
retain ; that great expense had been incurred and great 
works made to fortify them ; and that the commander- 
in-chief (Halleck) could not consent to abandon them 
except in case of absolute necessity. 

The next day, Hooker, pushed to the wall, spoke out 
plainly. He wrote: — 

" I received your telegram in regard to Harper's 
Ferry. I find there ten thousand men fit for duty. 
There they are of no use. They cannot defend the 
river ford, and, as far as concerns Harper's Ferry, they 
are worse than useless. As to the fortifications made 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 483 

by the troops, they will remain where they are if the 
troops are withdrawn. No enemy will take possession 
of them for themselves. Such is my opinion. All the 
public property could have been brought away to-night, 
and the garrison taken where it could render some 
service. Now it is only a mouthful for the enemy if 
they return. I ask that this despatch may be shown to 
the Secretary of War and to the President." 

Then, a few hours later : — 

" My first instructions order me to cover Harper's 
Ferry and Washington. Now the additional duty is 
imposed upon me to fight an enemy whose forces on 
my front are superior to mine. I respectfully but 
firmly ask that it may be understood that I am not 
able to fulfil that condition with the means at my dis- 
posal, and I ask to be instantly relieved from the posi- 
tion I am occupying." 

General Hooker was taken at his word, and the 
next morning, June 28, the order was received which 
appointed General George G. Meade general command- 
ing in his place. 

What struck the army the most in this sudden meas- 
ure was its inopportuneness, in the midst of decisive 
operations, and on the eve of a battle whose result 
would probably determine that of the war. Every one 
was astonished that, for the second time, the govern- 
ment was so completely wanting in what was suitable or 
advisable in an act of such importance, and what was 
said relative to McClellan was repeated as to Hooker. 
However, this time there was no delay or halt. No 
order was countermanded, no movement suspended. 
Each corps continued its march as if nothing new had 
occurred at headquarters. The army had changed its 
chief as a train on a railroad changes its conductor 
— while on the road. 



4S4 FOUR YEARS WITH THE RHOMAC ARMY. 

One remark, however. As soon as Meade had taken 
the command, the ten thousand men stationed at Har- 
per's Ferry, and peremptorily refused to Hooker, were 
promptly put under the orders of his successor. It was 
impossible for General Halleck to proclaim more for- 
cibly the personal motives which had dictated his action 
in this affair. 

On the 29th, we passed through Middleburg, where 
the army headquarters were at that time, and Taney- 
town, where we turned to the left, to camp on the road 
to Emmittsburg, a small village near which we passed 
the night of the next day. 

Now we come to the ist of July. We started out on 
our march early in the morning, but there was a delay 
of some hours. Then it was announced that we were 
about to fall back on Middleburg, and the troops began 
to move in that direction when the movement was sud- 
denly stopped by the arrival of a despatch. General 
Howard sent from Gettysburg the information that the 
First and the Eleventh Corps had been severely en- 
gaged since morning, against superior forces ; that 
General Reynolds, commanding the left wing, had been 
killed, and it was of the greatest importance that Gen- 
eral Sickles should bring forward, as quickly as possible, 
whatever troops he had available. The appeal was so 
pressing that the submitting it to the decision of the 
commanding general was not to be thought of. It was 
a responsibility to be taken immediately. Sickles did 
not hesitate. Leaving two brigades and two batteries 
at Emmittsburg, he departed with his two di\'isions for 
Gettvsburg. The brigades left behind were mine and 
the New Jersey brigade, commanded by Colonel Bur- 
Hng, in the absence of General Mott, wounded at Chan- 
cellorsville. 

Burlins: was at one side of the village, and I at the 



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pffTwified: 2gii--" 

lircr^ IS i — . . . . : in r- ..i im i nm' ' ^ I'^CTTT^, in'ilti tt : 

2$ coELnaTDsd i 5C2j:*:i. :rrr jT>Tr"!g la.-fftes. -w^ari ly;?^ 2. r?r- 

iiiir ■^'' i-irrr aCt^THZHO: irr7>'X:£~i TCI ISr XT" ":" ~";':" 

Sane. I liesve- at :. pess 5: ■ : . 

Biiot cscntesi. Gnt =■: . _ _- rms > . _ - . ' 

.. ^__ ever inrixi — — - - ._ — : — :.:'. 

"W^asi I 5xrfvsii 22 s. ^ i^^v^ 211 xtvEIj'; ic tSa? inm _■ . .^ 
door, tbe 0':^ ' ^ wiiC' ^a d T-siarnred x : ; 

cwnt^oe. oncii- - 5. iier Bg^a.::. Le 3aesr tr__. _ .. 

canme mesr "fc^ac r~s3r.rue-i imaer lOPC t^ tSae ijrrses- 're 
ETT * j - » i ff , -TftiHff ssse Tt'isc iEi^ tsism fiar tie ihrrses <:£ 
tbe ---- -■~'— - ; — ■■ - -f-fd. tiisre STf r~" — --'-^ - -r-e 
Apcc- - ■" ick;^ set?. . r 

tfee o cn i i u a n ; "WTitlDi "wtiiOTn: I sskei lir spesj: ri: ruae rsL" . ; r 

CBSBBBC dc'^m C2J3ni 23— - ^ ~ ~ . " -------.--- 

Sucre iier- Her 'r^ETz: - 

ercm inqnEoeriDae- S&e r^eclrectlT cs^mpsnesaeaaa'^c. taie 

Ejecesstaes rd "<rxr- V~ _ " sesmd mr? :it 

to tbe be!£rT. rrciemi "wrr - - :2n!fircs'c::r:"_- 

"■"^s Ti^Kie, sise seaat &c tnae - : --u- '^caeresi Mine 
to act 2:5 mtr gTimda, 



i06 FJCE. YEAIS WTTH THE POTOMLiC ARMY. 

Toe cha'pl'ifTni was an Iranian priest, or, at least, erf 
TtalTaTi orfg rn , wfeo) diM mot sacrifice to tlie graces, and 
irnose senn ^ t^er have set tbe Hudson on 

ire. He Le; :.-- - the dormitories and the class- 

rDoms o£ t he boarding-school, at that moment deserted, 
t fie sapiOTor having very wisely sent all th.e scholars to 
thefr rdarrres. There remained bttt five or six, belong- 
ing to. Southern families, who had not heard from their 
firiejudft rm a. long tfrne. 

We reached the belfry by a narrow and winding 
staircase. I went first. At the noise of my boots 
seninding on the steps, a rostling; of dresses and mnr- 
nsn- ' oices were heard above my head. There 

wer^ ._ _. jr ten yoong nans, who had mounted up 
there to enjoy the extraordinary spectacle of guns in 
battery, of stacked muskets, of sentin^ walking back 
and forth with their arms in hand, of soldiers making 
coffee in the gardens, of horses ready saddled eating 
their oat^ under the apple trees ; — all things of which, 
they had not the Least idea- We had cut o€ their re- 
treat, and they were crowded against the windows, like 
fri^lhtened birds, asking Heaven to send them wings 
wit' ' '■ to fiy away. 

.-ers," I said to them, " I catch you in the 
very act of cxarimitf. After aH, Jt is a very venial sim, 
and Is- '. the rereroiid father here present 

will fre-i-^. ^^.. -. . . ^ abaoiutwwji therefor," 

The poor giris^ tnucii ctriiljarrassed, looked at each 
oth^^, not knowing what to reply. The least tiraid 
venturai a smtle. In their heart?, they were thinking 
of bijt one thing: to escape as sooti as the oflScers 
accompanying rne k& the way clear, 

" Permit me," I saM, " to make one request of yo€L 
Ask St. Joseph to keep the rebeL-% away from here ; for, 
if they come before I get away, f do not know what 
will becorrie of yoar beautiful convent," 



ixv"AsrO!5r or PES5i5TLT.A2irEA- 487 

Tbej JirmmifyimtHT (Ssappeared, no'Mt^ iT nTm.g ^ prsirh otiuer 
aioE:^ tine staircase. I Inave nncver reSrr~^ ; . ^ Z . . 
bKjirg ; bum it woifflid. astomisli msc tstt - - .. : 

tbe two ansiies iiad. gpime to Gtllj'si bHM ^ to figfet, can. 
accoTCQl of me niirsidie perfoi— ' " " ?e Jos^ii, imta-- 
ceding in lavor cf liicse rti'jiT2::r . - r 

Tne TTiii'g^ it was qtiie'L Secwesn two ^miri tiiree o'clioci. 
in tiiie imooiiiuig. liie orcjer cs-r: ; ;„ m_v ines - ' r 

for T3S to jom ogt corps irzin; :;__" 21 G::i_ -. . _ 

We wis^ soom ifw rmt££. Tine msSajDce was ser^" . ' 

cigill TTn.if^ It rn-Jhi'T rsioiecU ^Tntrl tilie rOSCL Wis 

Tlae New Ta"5ev bngade oarciiDed in adTrsiiuce. :::_:_; 
foUowimg; aad we nTJunied aJoEig., ioreseeiiiig ttpa.T 2. gresit 
baltlie was iTnimi'-nTiieTit Haif-way w-e Eaet GeEueral Gra^ 
kam seaiLt to nmieei tis, to lead ins to o«3ir posinniosiL TiLe 
wnoUe arimv was. in fact, asseimbied at Gettjsbisrg'.. 
except the Sistk Corps, wnoicn baid moc vet aniTed. 

There I leajTjjed diar toe day bsore (J"3ily i i 
L rnn.'g - anid biioodr battle bad beem toagtit nsortawest o£ 
the dtT, om a rTiain cc 3aeigbi3 wbida bore tbe najsie oi 
Senmrnary HULs. GrenersJ ~ - -" ■wbo, in that direc- 
tTifMin^ covered with bis cs. . - r Lnajimb«ersibs!i^ and 

" M lu . tm rraa.'s ihin-nr roads* was Exst attacked there by PEUs 
corpsL Dinring that attaics, ^ ■ 

ky aTTur? vigor. Reyaoids anrrr^ _ -:_ ,. 
Pirst and the Eleventh Corps. Wadswortii''s di:Tt3^ :r 
whiidh came into line nrst, iocmd itseiii iim~ - 

eogasi^d. It was coasapotsed 01 bitat two bog:i_--- 

was opposed to Hetb's drvisaoio. wbicb was cooiii,pc«sed o£ 
fo'Ur ; bsat their valor sarppkied the lack oc nmnnibers. an<d 
it not oclv raaintarned its posadjoci, bsct by two charges 
Tigoro«islT executed drove the eneamy back to the other 
sade of \ViIIoe;gh.by Rmi. ca.pr£ra2g: nearly aH tbose wbo 
b:_: r-ed that brook. Meredith's brigade 

b: : . - ed its name o£ " Itqe. Bffigade," ajid 



488 FOUR YEARS WITH THE 1X:>T0MAC ARMY. 

counted General Archer amongst its prisoners. Cut- 
ler's brigade, on its side, surrounded two Mississippi 
regiments, and compelled them to surrender with their 
flags. 

It was in this engagement, which he himself directed 
and arranged, that General Reynolds fell mortally 
wounded. This was a great loss to the army, which 
the circumstances made it particularly difficult to 
replace. 

The two other divisions of the First Corps then 
arrived, and General Doubleday, on whom the com- 
mand devolved, formed his line of battle on a greater 
scale. At the same time, the Confederates were again 
reenforced by the addition of Ewell's corps to that of 
Hill, while, on our side, the Eleventh Corps took posi- 
tion on the right of the First. Thus, from hour to 
hour, and almost from minute to minute, the battle 
assumed greater proportions, and extended along the 
line of the hills disputed so desperately. But the con- 
test was not equal The two corps of the enemy 
amounted in all to about sixty thousand men, while 
ours amounted to not even a third of that number. 

General Howard, to whom the command fell by 
right of seniority, was not able to direct the battle as a 
whole. He simply ordered General Doubleday to 
fight on the left, while he (Howard) fought on the 
right, recommending him, at the same time, to en- 
deavor to maintain himself at the Seminar}'. To Gen- 
eral Wadsworth, whose di\-ision was the most advanced, 
he gave instructions to hold on as long as possible, and 
afterwards retire. The fighting was, then, very discon- 
nected after Reynolds' death, owing to the want of 
direction. The two corps were separated by an inter- 
val which Doubleday in vain endeavored to fill. The 
reserve division was not enouo:h. The enemv broke 



I3»\'ASI03f OF FENX5YLVA5M. 4.S9 

tbrcKigb that opening, and witii the less difficalty that 
the Eierenth Corps did not hold on long, bat broke 
witiMynt great resistance. 

The First Corps did not fall back until it saw itself 
nearly enveloped by the enemy, who were continually 
increasing in numbers. The losses were enormoo*. 
According to General Dotibleday s report, of eighty-two 
hundred men, after sir hours of fighting, there re- 
mained bat tw-: - ' -riand fifty. More than 
twevthirds wer .- ^ , • , .-call ! Still, the remain- 
ing third effected its retreat in good order, eren throogh 
the streets of Gettysburg, which the troops of Howard 
blodced op in terrible confusion. Early, profiting by 
the disorder, picked up thousands ot prisoners. De- 
cidedly, the Eleventh Corps was very unfortunate. It 
seemed as though the enemy had only to cast his net 
tcyvards it, to fish out a stock of prisoners. 

Sickles, answering the 3.yip€2l which had been made 
to him, arrived too late to take part in the action. He 
foraid the First and Eleventh Corps, or what remained 
of it, assembled in a strong position, on a height facing 
the hills on the other side of Gettysburg fro.v 
the day's action had been fought. General >! - , 
had arrived, sen: by General Meade, to see how mat- 
ters were, and to take :emporar}.- command of the three 
corps. He established them nrmly, examined the 
nature of the grcmnd, and the suitability of the positioa 
for accepting battle, and sent a report on the subject to 
the general commanding, as directed. When General 
Slocum arrived in his turn with the Twelfth Corps, he 
turned the command over to him, as he had been 
ordered to do, and rettLmed to headquarters, which 
were at Tane^town. 

The friends of General Hancock have represented 
his report as the determining cause which had over- 



490 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

come the hesitations of General Meade, and that which 
induced him to accept battle at Gettysburg. This is 
an error. This report was only a brief note on the 
position of the troops, and led to nothing conclusive. 
It was worded as follows : " We occupy a position in 
the cemetery which cannot be easily taken. However, 
it is a position easy to turn. When night comes, we 
can better determine what it is best to do. I think we 
can retire ; if not, we can fight here, for the ground 
appears to be not unfavorable with good troops." The 
despatch did not contain a word more on that 
subject. 

The truth is that General Meade did not have an in- 
tention of giving battle at Gettysburg rather than else- 
where. In this respect he held himself ready to act 
according to circumstances. The only plan which he 
had drawn up was the one of taking a defensive posi- 
tion on Pipe Creek, a stream which runs about twelve 
miles back of Gettysburg, and passes through Middle- 
burg before emptying into the Monocacy. This line 
appeared to him to be advantageous, and, on the report 
of the engineer officers sent to examine it, he had 
already drawn up an order addressed to the different 
corps commanders to fall back there. But when Rey- 
nolds' engagement on the Seminary Heights had 
brought on the accidental concentration of four army 
corps at Gettysburg, in front of two-thirds of the Con- 
federate army. General Meade did not hesitate to 
abandon his first design. Orders were hurried for- 
ward to all the forces not already at Gettysburg to 
report there as soon as possible. We have seen that 
the two brigades left at Emmittsburg were not for- 
gotten. 

General Lee, on his side, found himself constrained 
to take the same measures ; and, during the whole 



INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



491 



night, on every road, the cannon rolled on, and the 
troops marched, converging towards that point in Penn- 
sylvania unknown the day before, on the morrow re- 
nowned, where the fortune of the war was about to be 
decided in the most terrible battle which the New 
World had ever seen. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GETTYSBURG. 

Position of the two armies — Dangerous advance of the Third Corps — 
First attack on the extreme left — The fight of the Third Brigade — 
Double assault on the summit of Little Round Top — Caldwell's 
division in line — The enemy driven back — Graham in the peach 
orchard — General Humphreys — The left line driven in from one 
end to the other — Offensive return — The position recovered — 
Ewell's attack on the extreme right — Night spent in position — 
Renewal of the battle at Gulp Hill — Interval — The scene of the 
action — Everything staked on one blow by the rebels — Account 
taken — Trophies of the Second Corps. 

Ten roads and one railroad lead to Gettysburg. From 
the west, the Millerstown and Chambersburg ; from 
the north, the Mummasburg, the Carlisle, and the Har- 
risburg (the State capital) ; from the east, the York and 
the Bosmantown ; from the south, the Baltimore, the 
Taneytown, and Emmittsburg. This concentration of 
roads made the place important strategically, in regard 
to which General Lee was not mistaken. He would 
have established himself there, without striking a blow, 
if Buford with his cavalry had not opposed an obstinate 
resistance to Hill's column, advancing by the Cham- 
bersburg road, and if Reynolds, without doubt in order 
to give time to General Meade to arrive, had not 
endeavored to defend the Seminary Heights against 
the superior forces of the enemy. 

This chain of hills, situated to the west of Gettys- 
burg, runs from the north to the south. Forced at this 
point, and on the isolated hills which rise to the north, 
the First and the Eleventh Corps must fall back to the 

492 



GETTYSBURG. 



49: 



south, on the Cemetery Hill, which they did. These 
heights rise gradually from the city. On the right, 
they turn backwards to end by a steep slope, known by 
the name of Gulp Hill. This was our extreme right, 
occupied by Howard's corps and Wadsworth's division. 
On the left, the line turned to the south, and, falling 
off towards the centre, again rose, to end in a steeper 
and more abrupt crest, known as Little Round Top, 
which formed our extreme left. Along this line our 
forces were disposed as follows : Robinson's and Doub- 
leday's divisions of the First Corps ; the Second 
Corps, commanded by Hancock ; and the Third, by 
Sickles. Behind the latter, the Fifth Corps, com- 
manded by Sykes, had not yet taken position in line. 
The Sixth Corps, led by Sedgwick, having the longest 
distance to travel, could not join us until afternoon. 

Thus our front, with a development three miles in 
length, had exactly the form of a fish-hook, the point 
formed by Culp Hill, the curve by the cemetery, and 
the shank by the chain of hills ending in Little Round 
Top. The enemy deployed his forces parallel to ours, 
on the Seminary Hills. Longstreet formed his right, 
Hill the centre, while on his left Ewell, occupying the 
city, turned around beyond it in front of both the 
cemetery and Culp's Hill. Such was the position of 
the two armies when, on the morning of July 2, Colo- 
nel Burling's and my brigade arrived from Emmitts- 
burg. 

The road which we followed runs along on the crest 
of a swell of ground between the two lines of hills, but 
not at an equal distance from both. We had to pass, 
at first, a few hundred yards along the right of Long- 
street's front, as far as a house surrounded by a peach 
orchard, where the road obliques to the right, and, 
further on, passes the foot of the cemetery. We did 



494 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

well to hurry along. We were still able to find the 
road free, except a few shots fired at us by the enemy's 
sharpshooters. 

A crossroad to the right led us to the position occu- 
pied by the Third Corps, on the rocky slope of a hill, 
where it was much to be desired that the Confederates 
should come to attack us. Except the railroad with 
shelving banks, which did not exist here, our line re- 
called the one which the enemy occupied at Freder- 
icksburg. It was not, then, without regret that about 
two o'clock in the afternoon we received the order to 
advance across the low, half-wooded ground, to the edge 
of a tall clump of trees, which presented to us none of 
the favorable conditions of defence of the position we 
abandoned. Our halt, besides, was not of long dura- 
tion. Humphreys' division soon advanced its line 
along the Emmittsburg road ; Graham's brigade of our 
division followed the movement, and took position on 
Humphreys' left, in the peach orchard, which was to 
play so large a part among the incidents of the battle. 
My brigade and Ward's turned to the left, on a line 
which extended from the peach orchard nearly to Little 
Round Top, facing the south, and forming, en potence, 
the extreme left of the army. 

General Sickles had taken the responsibility of this 
change of position, without the authority of the general 
commanding. His object was to be able to oppose a 
front of two brigades to a turning movement which the 
enemy had already begun. But this inspiration showed 
more ardor to advance to meet the fight than a nice 
appreciation of the best means to sustain it. The new 
disposition of the Third Corps offered some great 
inconveniences and some great dangers. In the first 
place, it found itself isolated in advance of the battle 
front ; for the Second Corps, which had no order to 



GETTYSBURG. 



495 



follow the movement, remained behind, with an interval 
of about five hundred yards from Humphreys' right. 
Towards the left, the line forming a salient angle at 
the peach orchard became much thinner, in that it had 
been so much extended along the two faces. On this 
account, Ward's brigade and mine were not enough to 
connect, by a continuous line, the Emmittsburg road 
to Little Round Top. The space left open between 
Graham and me was occupied only by the Third Michi- 
gan, deployed as skirmishers, under the command of 
Colonel B, R. Pierce. On this side, Ward had not been 
able to extend to the steep hills where our extreme left 
was to rest. He had been compelled to rest his line 
on a rocky height, where his last regiment was sepa- 
rated from Little Round Top by an open interval. On 
the left, as on the right, the Third Corps was found 
thus in the air. At the centre, thrown forward as we 
have seen, it was necessarily feeble, like all salient 
angles presented to an attack, and received no strength 
from the shape of the ground. 

Sickles had sent to ask the general-in-chief to come 
and examine for himself the new disposition. The lat- 
ter, being very busy elsewhere, had been delayed in 
coming. When he arrived on the ground, it was 
already too late to change anything. The enemy was 
upon us. The only resource remaining was to take 
the necessary measures, as soon as possible, to draw 
from the Second and Fifth Corps the reenforcements 
which we would stand in need of. 

As regards my brigade, the position was good. Two 
of my regiments, the Fifth Michigan and the One Hun- 
dred and Tenth Pennsylvania, were deployed on a hill- 
top sparsely covered with trees and rocks, at the foot 
of which ran a brook in a little muddy ravine. This 
ravine forked to my left on the edge of a wheat field. 



4^6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the narrow extremity of which separated me from the 
Second Brigade. In the woods behind my line, I held 
two regiments in reserve, the Seventeenth Maine and 
the Fortieth New York, ready to throw them on the 
side of the wheat field, if the enemy endeavored to 
penetrate through there, or towards the peach orchard, 
if the Third Michigan could not maintain connection 
with the First Brigade. 

Longstreet's Confederate corps, after having crossed 
the Emmittsburg road, advanced towards Little Round 
Top, with the evident intention of turning our left. 
The firing of his skirmishers marked out to us the route 
of his column, upon which two batteries of artillery 
placed behind the peach orchard opened with shell. 
We had not long to wait for a reply, and, as usual, the 
ball was opened on both sides by the cannon. We were 
very attentive to discover on what point the storm was 
to break. 

Ward received the first shock. A burst of cheering, 
followed immediately by a violent musketry fire, told us 
that the rebels were charging across the ravine. The 
trees prevented us from seeing anything of the engage- 
ment, but the deafening noise of the firing told us well 
that it was an attack with the whole power of the 
enemy, and that our turn would not be long in coming. 
Soon an aid of General Birney brought me the order to 
send a regiment from the other side of the wheat field. 
The Seventeenth Maine hurried forward on the run, and 
took position behind a stone wall breast-high, so that 
the enemy would be subjected to an oblique fire, if 
Ward's line was threatened 

A few minutes afterward, the Fortieth was sent in 
haste to oppose an attack, which was turning the left 
of the Second Brigade, and penetrating between it and 
Little Round Toq. The greatest danger of the moment 



GETTYSBURG. 



497 



was there. I had then but two regiments in line of 
battle, and a third prolonging my line as skirmishers, 
when the avalanche rolled upon me. Hold on there, 
hard and firm ! There is no reserve. 

It was a hard fight. The Confederates appeared to 
have the devil in them. They had been told that they 
had before them nothing but militia assembled in haste. 
If that had been true, without disparaging the militia, I 
believe, from the manner in which the rebels rushed 
upon us, they would have been swept away in the 
twinkling of an eye. But, when they met us face to 
face, they quickly recognized the old troops of Hooker 
and Kearney, which was a very different affair. I must 
say, however, that they did not put any less spirit in 
their attack. Quite the contrary. On the other side, 
my men did not flinch. Like veterans, accustomed to 
make the best of every resource, they had sheltered 
themselves behind the rocks and trunks of trees which 
were on the line, and when their assailants descended 
into the ravine and crossed the creek they were received, 
at a distance of twenty yards, with a deadly volley, 
every shot of which was effective. The assault broken, 
those who were on the opposite slope began a rapid fire 
at a range still very short. On both sides, each one 
aimed at his man, and, notwithstanding every protection 
from the ground, men fell dead and wounded with fright- 
ful rapidity. 

An aid came through a hail of bullets to ask another 
regiment from me. "Tell General Birney," I replied 
to him, showing him my line, " that I have not a man 
left who has not upon his hands all that he can do, and 
tell him that, far from being able to furnish reenforce- 
ments to any one, I shall be in need of them myself in 
less than a quarter of an hour." 

In fact, the persistent pressure of the attack showed 



49^ FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

clearly that we had a contest with superior forces. If 
they had attacked us entirely with the bayonet, we 
would have been swept away. Happily, the nature of 
the ground broke their lines, and enabled us to hold 
them at a distance by the rapidity and precision of our 
fire. I had never seen any men fight with equal ob- 
stinacy. One would have said that each believed the 
destiny of the Republic was attached to the desperate 
vigor of his efforts. So that we maintained our hold ; 
but my line was melting away in its position. It seemed 
to me that nearly half were struck down. It remained 
to be seen how long the other half would hold out. 

At this moment, Lieutenant Houghton, one of my 
aids, told me that a brigade of the Fifth Corps was 
lying in two lines behind us, awaiting the time to come 
into action. This was good news. But, as I went to 
assure myself of its accuracy, I saw these troops rise up 
and fall back hurriedly at the command of their officers. 
I galloped forward towards the nearest of them, and 
asked them, — " Where are you going ? " — " We do 
not know." — "Who has given you orders to retire.-'" 
— "We do not know." They then filed out of the 
woods, towards the crossroad which led into the Em- 
mittsburg pike. These regiments belonged to General 
Barnes' division. They were going with their brigade 
to fill the interval between our right and Graham's left. 

I returned immediately to my men, advancing to the 
line of the Fifth Michigan, knowing well that nothing 
encourages soldiers as much as the presence of their 
superior officers in their midst. The position was 
becoming desperate. Ward's left had been broken in. 
The Fortieth New York, sent to its aid, had in vain 
charged the enemy vigorously, coming to bayonet's 
point ; the Second Brigade had been forced to retire. 
The Seventeenth Maine, expected to stop the advance 



GETTYSBURG. 



499 



of the enemy in that direction, had not been able to 
keep its position along the wall where it presented 
its flank to the troops attacking us. The latter, enfi- 
lading his right, compelled it to fall back to the other 
side of the wheat field. The One Hundred and Tenth 
Pennsylvania was holding on only in fragments. 
Major Jones, who commanded it, had just had his leg 
broken. The Fifth Michigan was much shaken by its 
enormous losses. 

As I arrived near the colors, the color-bearer stag- 
gered, and fell back several paces. I called out, 
" Steady ! " "I am wounded," he said, with a choking 
voice. — " Where .-' " — " In the throat." I leaned over 
my horse and put my hand on his shoulder: "It is 
nothing," said I, " I see no blood." He immediately 
retook his place, raising up the flag. The ball, which 
had really struck him in the neck, had bounded off his 
leather collar, and the shock had choked him for a 
moment. 

Colonel Pulford, seeing the movement, darted to our 
side. He was on foot, and held a revolver in his hand. 
It was broken between his fingers without doing him 
any injury except a slight scratch. 

At this moment, an increase of the musketry fire 
announced the arrival of reenforcements from the 
other side of the wheat field. Captain Smith, inspector 
of my brigade, advanced to the edge of the woods to 
assure himself of it. He had made but a few steps 
when his horse turned on his hind legs, as if ready to 
fall. A ball had passed through the shoulder of the 
animal, and the leg of the rider. The latter, turning 
towards me, showed me, on the front of his boot, a 
round hole, from which the blood was running freely. 
" Go to the ambulance as quickly as possible," I told 
him. " Your horse is still able to take you there." 



500 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Captain Smith saluted me with perfect coolness, ex- 
pressed to me the regret he felt in not being able to be 
of further service to me, and went off without hurrying. 

I should have had near me at this time only my two 
aids, Lieutenants Houghton and Waldron, if, at this 
moment. Captain Piatt, my assistant adjutant-general, 
had not come to rejoin me. He had accompanied 
the Fortieth to the left of Ward's brigade, had charged 
with the regiment, and had had his horse killed under 
him. Affected by organic weakness in one leg, he ran 
great risk of remaining where he had been thrown, if 
he had not found very d propos the horse of Major 
Warner, who had just been severely wounded. He 
found his way thus to me, suffering in body, his clothes 
spotted with mud, but whole, except his boot heel, 
which had been carried away by a piece of shell. 

Our position was no longer tenable ; our ammunition 
was nearly exhausted, and already some of the men 
were searching the cartridge boxes of the dead for 
ammunition, when, at last, a brigade of the Second 
Corps came to relieve us. TJiey did not lie down 
behind us. They advanced in good order and with a 
resolute step. I had only to show them my line, three- 
quarters demolished. They rushed forward. I learned 
afterward that it was the brigade of General Zook, who 
was killed among the first at the place where he re- 
lieved me. 

However, the enemy, profiting by our movement in 
retreat, had advanced into the wheat field, on the edge 
of which I rallied what remained to me of the Fifth 
Michigan and the One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylva- 
nia. General Birney, who was near, immediately 
brought into line of battle the Seventeenth Maine and 
a New Jersey regiment of Burling's brigade. I has- 
tened to complete the line with what troops I had at 




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501 



hand, and we charged through the wheat field, drivin"- 
the rebels back to the other side of the stone wall. It 
was the first charge of the day on that ground which 
saw so many more before night. It was also the last 
effort of my brigade. After the offensive return, I re- 
ceived orders to fall back, and during that movement I 
understood in what a hazardous position I had been 
placed without knowing it. My front, defended now by 
Zook's brigade, was outflanked on the left from the 
further side of the wheat field, and on the right by the 
way of the peach orchard. The fire of the enemy, com- 
ing from these two directions, was crossed behind us, 
almost in one line, where I lost another score of men. 
The Third Michigan had not yet rejoined me. It was 
in bringing it past that place that Colonel Pierce, hav- 
ing thus far escaped, was struck by a ball and seriously 
wounded. 

Let us now look at some other episodes of the 
battle. 

When the enemy had turned Ward's left, that was 
but the first step towards getting possession of Little 
Round Top. He pushed his forces on rapidly from 
that point, and began to climb the steep hill with so 
much the greater impunity that the summit had not 
as yet been occupied by us except by a squad of the 
signal service. Fortune willed, at that moment, that 
Warren, chief engineer on the staff, should arrive on 
this point, whence the view embraced the attack in its 
whole extent. A glance told him the imminence of the 
danger, and he ran to Barnes' division of the Fifth 
Corps, on its way to reenforce us. He took upon him- 
self to detach from it a brigade commanded by Colonel 
Vincent, and to hurry it, on the run, to the summit of 
Little Round Top, which Hood's Texans were also 
endeavoring to reach from the other side. 



502 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Both the parties arrived at the crest at nearly the 
same time. They both understood the vital impor- 
tance of the position. So, without stopping to fire, 
they rushed upon each other with the bayonet. In 
that hand-to-hand contest, with equal courage, the solid 
muscles of the North prevailed over the hot blood of 
the South, Our men were victorious, and the position 
was saved ; not without, however, a continuation of a 
deadly fire from the assailants against General Weed's 
brigade, which had joined that of Colonel Vincent, and 
on Hazlitt's battery, which the men had succeeded, with 
unheard-of efforts, in dragging up to the top, through 
woods and over rocks. Finally, a bayonet charge of 
the Twentieth Maine, under the lead of Colonel Cham- 
berlain, swept the ground of the enemy. The posses- 
sion of Little Round Top cost us dearly. Weed, 
Vincent, and Hazlitt paid their lives for it. And 
how many more ! 

The battle rolled back thus upon the position occu- 
pied at first by Ward's brigade, and where Caldwell's 
division of the Second Corps met the rebels in the 
woods and in the wheat field. Colonel Cross, who com- 
manded the left brigade, was killed there. Colonel 
Brook, commanding the centre, was wounded. We have 
already seen that General Zook had just been killed, 
while leading the right. Nevertheless, Caldwell's di- 
vision drove the enemy back of the ravine where the 
attack had commenced, and two brigades of regulars of 
Ayres' division of the Fifth Corps completed the line to 
Little Round Top, thus closing the interval by which 
General Hood had profited to turn the left of our 
division. The ground lost on this side was thus re- 
covered when another change came upon the face of 
affairs. 

When Hood had pushed his right against Little 



GETTYSBURG. 



503 



Round Top, MacLaws, who followed him closely, had 
reenforced the attack, which I had to sustain, and dur- 
ing which the two brigades of Tilton and Sweitzer of 
the Fifth Corps had come up to take position on my 
right. As soon as the action had begun on this side, 
the enemy, who only waited for this, charged upon the 
peach orchard, where Graham occupied with his brigade 
the point of the angle of which I have already spoken. 
On the right of Graham, General Humphreys had only 
two weak brigades, the third having been sent to re- 
enforce the left. 

The resistance was stubborn ; but the position was 
poor. What could one brigade do against MacLaws' left 
and Hill's right, which were attacking it at the same 
time .'' He had to give way. While disputing the 
ground foot by foot. General Graham fell, struck by a 
bullet and a piece of shell. He could not be carried 
off and remained a prisoner in the enemy's hands. 

In this critical moment. General Sickles had his leg 
carried away. He dismounted from his horse, had his 
leg bound above the knee with a handkerchief, and left 
the field of battle on a litter, leaving the command to 
General Birney. 

The position of General Humphreys was gravely 
compromised. The rebels, on dislodging Graham from 
the peach orchard, had outflanked his left, and they were 
moving- a2:ainst him to attack him in front at the same 
time. Then, with splendid coolness and under a terri- 
ble fire, he effected a change of front to the rear, with- 
out ceasing to carry on the combat. His right held on 
to the Emmittsburg road ; his left extended towards Lit- 
tle Round Top, in the direction where Birney wished to 
form a new line. This dangerous movement could not 
have been carried out except with troops extremely firm 
and at the cost of great sacrifices. Humphreys effected 



504 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

it without confusion, but nearly one-half of his men re- 
mained on the field. His right was protected by two 
regiments of Gibbon's division, which prevented the 
enemy from penetrating from that direction. 

The idea of forming a second line was not practi- 
cable. Birney had neither the time nor the means with 
the remains of his two torn divisions. The enemy, in 
breaking through at the peach orchard, had completely 
destroyed the salient angle of the general line. While 
continuing the terrible fight against Humphreys, he 
took the two brigades of Tilton and Sweitzer in flank 
and rear, and they were immediately obliged to retire. 
Their falling back compelled that of Caldwell's division, 
which, in its turn, left uncovered the right of Ayres' 
two brigades. Thus everything gave way on the double 
line where Sickles forced the battle. Carried away at 
first on the left, afterward regained, now lost in its 
whole length, it was not destined to remain in the 
enemy's hands. 

The losses of the Confederates were, at least, equal to 
ours ; but the battle had been conducted on their side 
with much more harmony. Hence the advantage 
gained by them. When, however, towards sundown, 
they advanced to throw themselves against the line 
of the Cemetery Heights, they were not only re- 
pulsed, but also driven out of the ground which they 
had already gained, on one side by General Crawford, at 
the head of the Pennsylvania reserves, and on the other 
by General Hancock, reenforced by the troops of the 
First and Twelfth Corps. 

This was not, however, the last combat of that bloody 
day. So many troops had been drawn from the right 
to reenforce the left that from the cemetery to Gulp's 
Hill several points were found to be completely 
stripped. Evvell, profiting by this, endeavored to carry 



GETTYSBURG. 505 

the position with the divisions of Early and Johnson. 
And he came very near succeeding. At the cemetery 
he had before him only the Eleventh Corps, which could 
not prevent the assailants from coming up to the line 
of the guns. Happily, Hancock had hurriedly sent for- 
ward Carroll's brigade, which came up in time to repulse 
the attack at the instant when the artillerymen were 
about to be cut dovv^n at their guns. At Culp's Hill 
there was left only Wadsworth's division, much used up 
by the attack of the night before, and a brigade of the 
Twelfth Corps, commanded by General Greene. . They 
were not able to cover the whole ground, and General 
Johnson succeeded in getting a hold, for that night, in 
some works thrown up at our extreme right. 

On withdrawing from the battle by detachments, our 
division had assembled in a field near the Taneytown 
road. The ammunition wagons came up promptly, and, 
before doing anything else, the cartridge boxes were 
filled. Then, at the close of the day, fires were lighted, 
so that the men could get something to eat. We were 
still ignorant of the day's result, but we well knew 
what it had cost us. There remained only to find 
out how many of the missing would rejoin us during 
the night. 

General Birney was with us. He had had a horse 
killed under him, and, in a moment of despondency, he 
said to me, in a low voice, that he wished he had 
shared the fate of his horse. He believed the day lost ; 
he counted up his friends, dead and wounded ; he saw 
his command half destroyed, and, thinking of the 
Republic, he trembled for it, if the army were beaten. 
These dark thoughts were dispersed when his young 
brother, Fitz-Hugh Birney, who was serving on his 
staff, came to bring him the news of the last success of 
Hancock and Crawford. Then they made a list of the 



506 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

officers who had been unfortunate in the lottery of 
battle. The list was long. In the Second Brigade 
Colonel Wheeler of the Twentieth Indiana had been 
killed. In another regiment, I regret not to find which 
in my memoranda, Colonel Ellis, the lieutenant-colonel, 
and the major had all met the same fate. 

Lieutenant Raphall, aid to Ward, lost his right arm. 
He was a young man from New York, as jovial as he 
was brave. One of his comrades went to visit him at 
the ambulance, with a full heart and with tears in his 
eyes. He found Raphall, who had just undergone am- 
putation, philosophically smoking his pipe, and telling 
stories to his fellow-sufferers to make a dead man 
laugh. 

This recalls to me that General Howard, having lost 
his left arm at the battle of Fair Oaks, was waiting in 
the ambulance his turn for amputation when he met 
Kearney, who, some years before, had lost his right 
arm in Mexico. The latter, to comfort his wounded 
friend, could think of nothing better than to propose a 
bargain with him. "My dear Howard," said he, "if 
you will agree to it, we can save some money here- 
after. We will buy our gloves together, and the right 
of each pair shall be yours, and the left mine." But 
before Howard was well enough to wear his glove, poor 
Kearney was no longer in need of any. 

When each one of us had related what he knew of 
the occurrences of the day, I looked around amongst 
ray regiments. The Fifth Michigan had suffered the 
most. It had lost six more than half of the number it 
had in action. The Third Michigan, which had fought 
only as skirmishers, was naturally the one which came 
out the least injured of any. In fine, a clear third of 
my brigade was lost. 

And probably we would have to renew the battle on 



GETTYSBURG. 



507 



the morrow, for it still remained indecisive. All the 
efforts of the day were concentrated on one object : 
on one side, to carry the advanced position where 
Sickles had placed the Third Corps ; on the other, to 
hold it. To lose it and retake it twice was well 
enough while the battle lasted. But to remain there, in 
order to renew the trial the dangers of which had been 
demonstrated, would have been a grave fault. General 
Meade did not commit that fault. He brought the 
army back to the position where he had intended to 
await the attack of the Confederates, and the morning: 
of the 3d of July found us disposed in regular line on 
the Cemetery Heights. The arrival of the Sixth Corps 
had even promised to extend our front to Round Top, 
a hill lying on the prolongation of the line of Little 
Round Top, which it commands. 

This time the action commenced on the extreme 
right. We have seen that Ewell had succeeded in 
effecting a lodgement in our lines at Culp's Hill. The 
most pressing duty was to dislodge him from that posi- 
tion before he had time to establish himself there more 
solidly. At d,aylight some new batteries which Meade 
had caused to be put in position opened a very sharp 
fire on the intruders. Then Williams' and Geary's 
divisions of the Twelfth Corps charged the position. 
It was retaken after a sharp fight, in which Shaler's 
brigade of the Sixth Corps also took part. That done, 
the retrenchments at this point were reformed, and we 
waited for the grand effort, the final act. 

At one o'clock in the afternoon a fierce cannonade 
broke forth without any warning along the whole Con- 
federate line, which appeared to be overstocked with 
artillery. They had, in fact, put in line in front of the 
Seminary Heights from a hundred and thirty to a hun- 
dred and forty pieces. On our side we had eighty to 



508 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

reply to them, the disposition of our Hnes not leaving 
us room in which to put more. There were thus more 
than two hundred guns which from both heights were 
sending balls and shells with dreadful explosions 
through the thick clouds of white smoke floating in the 
breeze. We had, of course, many times heard the 
thunder of artillery, but never with a noise so deafen- 
ing. It was as though the great voice of the two 
armies was bursting forth in violent defiance, in furious 
anger. And our men were thinking : " Well ! we are 
going to have it out to-day ! " 

This lasted about two hours, two hours during which 
the iron hail did not cease to fall in the centre of our 
line, occupied by Hays', Gibbon's, Doubleday's, and Bir- 
ney's divisions. All our men were lying down, which, 
nevertheless, did not prevent the hellish cannonade 
from doing us a great deal of damage. I lost seventy- 
six men from my command, and the battery near which 
I was had eighteen horses killed. 

Towards three o'clock in the afternoon, the firing 
relaxed sensibly on our side, General Hunt, command- 
ing the artillery, thinking that the advantage gained did 
not compensate for such a prodigal expenditure of am- 
munition. The enemy supposed he had silenced or dis- 
mounted a part of our pieces. The moment had come. 
He came out from the woods where he had formed for 
the attack, and debouched openly on the plain. 

It was a splendid sight. The skirmishers, at regular 
intervals, advanced first, covering the whole front of the 
attacking body. Behind them, Pickett's division formed 
in two lines, having on his left Heth's division, and on 
his right W^ilcox's Brigade in column of regiments. 
They were fully fifteen to eighteen thousand men. 
They advanced towards us, and our men awaited their 
approach. 



GETTYSBURG. 



509 



When they were in easy reach of case shot, our artil- 
lery opened on them a crushing fire, which mowed down 
their ranks, but did not stop them. On the contrary, 
they came on the faster, only obliquing to the left, 
under the fierce play of projectiles on their right by 
eight batteries, under the direction of Major MacGil- 
vray. And our men still looked on them advancing, 
counting the gaps made in their ranks, and feeling that 
they were getting full revenge for Fredericksburg. 

The first line had arrived at about one hundred and 
fifty yards from the line of the Second Corps, when the 
front of Hays' and Gibbon's divisions burst into a sheet 
of flame, and redoubled the carnage by a rolling fire, 
which was the signal for the Confederates to charge. 
Everything rushed forward. The ranks were melted 
together and formed thenceforth but a raging mass of 
men running, rolling, and tumbling forward, and through 
which the cannon opened great lanes. The officers, 
swords uplifted, marched in the front ranks ; the colonels 
guided to the front their regiments torn by canister. 
Their yells were heard above the noise of the artillery 
and musketry ; and they came on like waves against a 
rocky shore. It was their last effort. 

They struck first on two regiments of Webb's brigade, 
covered by a light stone wall. They threw themselves 
against the obstacle with impetuosity, beating down the 
troops which defended it, and with a few bounds were 
amongst the guns. Our men, dislodged from the first 
line, ran to join the regiments of the second line, and 
turned together against the assailants. During some 
minutes they fought there over the pieces, with gun- 
shots, with bayonet, with buts of muskets, with ramrods, 
and the ground was literally covered with dead and 
wounded. 

To the left of the point of attack, Stannard was 



5IO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

placed with a brigade of Doubleday's division. Profit- 
ing by his position, which was the most saHent on that 
part of the line, he changed front forward, and opened 
a deadly fire on the right flank of the assailants. 
Almost immediately, the left of Gibbon made a similar 
movement. Then, under the direction of General Han- 
cock, present in the action, the whole force threw itself 
on the enemy's column. It was the coup de grace. 
Attacked in their turn on one side, turned on the other, 
almost surrounded, the remnant of Pickett's division 
threw down their arms and surrendered. 

Heth's division had not been able to break the right 
of the Second Corps. It had been itself broken against 
the resistance of Hays, and also left a multitude of pris- 
oners in our hands. 

All who thought that they could get away took the 
backward course through a fire of canister, which again 
brought down the half of them to the ground. I *saw 
places where, being crushed together, the dead were 
absolutely left piled one upon the other. 

Wilcox's Confederate brigade, which seemed to be 
held in reserve on the right of Pickett's division, then 
advanced in its turn, perhaps to protect the fugitives 
by a diversion. But the artillery fire was enough to 
stop it, and a last charge of two regiments of Stannard 
sufficed to disperse it and take from it a goodly number 
of prisoners. 

Thus was ended the battle of Gettysburg, the partial 
engagement of July i to our disadvantage, continued with 
desperate fighting on the 2d, without definite result, 
and finished on the 3d by a decisive victory. During 
these three days, our loss was, in round numbers, twenty- 
three thousand men, of whom six thousand six hundred 
were prisoners or missing. That of the enemy was 
about thirty thousand men, more than thirteen thou- 



GETTYSBURG. 5 1 1 

sand of whom were prisoners. In killed and wounded 
the loss was about equal, between sixteen and seventeen 
thousand on each side. 

Proportionately to the number engaged, our total loss 
was more than a third, the Sixth Corps not being en- 
gaged. The loss of the Confederates, all of whose three 
corps took part in the battle, must have been three- 
sevenths of their army. 

In the great charge of the last day, three Confeder- 
ate generals were killed : Armistead, Barksdale, and 
Garnett. A fourth, Kemper, was severely wounded. 
On our side, Hancock and Gibbon were wounded. But 
they had the moral balm of a victory to hasten the 
healing of their wounds. In the victory which threw 
the rebels back into Virginia, more than four thousand 
prisoners and twenty-seven flags remained in the hands 
of the Second Corps. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE PURSUIT. 

The field of battle by moonlight — The wounded and the dead — Pursuit 
of the enemy — French's division added to the Third Corps — Politi- 
cal intrusions — Difficult position of General Meade- — Council of 
war — General disappointment — The war carried again into Virginia 
— Battle of Manassas Gap — Lost opportunity — General French — 
Once more on the Rappahannock. 

Between eight and nine o'clock in the evening, as the 
last glimmers of daylight disappeared behind us, I 
received an order to go down into the flat, and occupy 
the field of battle with two brigades in line. That of 
Colonel Madill was added to mine for that purpose. 
General Ward, who temporarily commanded the divis- 
ion, remained in reserve with the third. 

The most profound calm reigned now, where a few 
hours before so furious a tempest had raged. The 
moon, with her smiling face, mounted up in the starry 
heavens, as at Chancellorsville. Her pale light shone 
equally upon the living and the dead, the little flowers 
blooming in the grass as well as upon the torn bodies 
lying in the pools of clotted blood. Dead bodies were 
everywhere. On no field of battle have I ever seen 
them in such numbers. The greater part of my line 
was strewn with them, and, when the arms were stacked 
and the men asleep, one was unable to say, in that 
mingling of living and dead, which would awake the 
next morning and which would not. 

Beyond the line of the advanced sentinels, the 
wounded still lay where they had fallen, calling for 



THE PURSUIT. 



513 



assistance or asking for water. Their cries died away 
without any reply in the silence of the night, for the 
enemy was close by, and it was a dangerous undertak- 
ing to risk advancing into the space which separated 
us. In making an attempt, an officer of my staff drew 
three shots, which whistled unpleasantly near his ears. 
All labors of charity were necessarily put off till the 
next morning. It is sad to think that this was a sen- 
tence of death to numbers of the unfortunate. Mourn- 
ful thoughts did not hinder the tired soldiers from 
sleeping. Everything was soon forgotten in a dream- 
less slumber. 

At dawn of day, when I awakened, the first object 
which struck my eyes was a young sergeant stretched 
out on his back, his head resting on a flat stone, serv- 
ing for a pillow. His position was natural, even grace- 
ful. One knee lightly raised, his hands crossed on his 
breast, a smile on his lips, his eyes closed, he appeared 
to sleep, and dream, perhaps, of her who awaited his 
return in the distant Green Mountains. — He was dead. 
Wounded, he had sought out this spot in which to die. 
His haversack was near him. He had taken out of it a 
little book, on which his last looks had been cast, for the 
book was still open in his stiffened fingers. It was the 
New Testament ; on the first leaf, a light hand had 
traced, in pencil, some letters, rubbed out, which one 
might think were a name. I have kept the volume, and, 
on the white page, to the unknown name I have added, 
"Died at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863." 

During the night, the enemy had drawn back his 
pickets to the other side of the Emmittsburg road, and 
left us free to assist the wounded. The appearance of 
litters and ambulance wagons strengthened them, by 
giving them hope. They related their engagements of 
the evening before, and their sufferings during the 



514 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

night. One of them, pointing out the dead lying 
around him, said : " This one lived only till sundown ; 
— that one lasted until about midnight. — There is one 
who was still groaning but an hour ago." 

The gray-jackets abounded on one side ; the boys in 
blue, more numerous, on the other, indicating the move- 
ments of the troops during the battle. There where 
they were mingled together, all enmity had ceased 
when the contest was over, and the canteen passed im- 
partially to all lips. 

The greater part of the dead were terribly lacerated, 
for it was here particularly that the artillery had done 
its dreadful work. There were the dead, with heads 
carried away, breasts torn open, limbs gone, entrails 
protruding on the ground. 

Continuing my walk, I came near a large, isolated 
rock. It might have been eight or ten feet high, and 
fifteen or twenty feet broad. Rounding on the side 
towards the enemy, but flat as a wall on the opposite 
side, it had served as an advanced post for one of our 
companies, probably belonging to Stannard's brigade. 
What had happened there .-* Had they been surprised 
by the rapid advance of the enemy ? Had they tried 
to shelter themselves behind that stone during the 
fight .? Had the firing of canister by our guns rendered 
retreat impossible .-• Had they refused to surrender } 
No one, to my knowledge, escaped to tell. Whatever 
was the cause, there were twenty lying there cut down 
by lead and steel, and amongst the pile I recog- 
nized the uniform of an officer and the chevrons of a 
sergeant. 

When I returned to the centre of my line, the ambu- 
lances were at work, and squads detailed from each 
regiment picked up the arms which were scattered by 
thousands over the field. A little later, my command 



THE PURSUIT. 



515 



was relieved, and again took its position of the evening 
before. 

Some reconnoissances sent out to look for the enemy 
had not far to go to find him. His pickets were still on 
the edge of the woods in front of the Seminary Heights, 
We afterwards learned that he expected, during the 
whole day, that we would attack him, hoping to get his 
revenge. But General Meade, content with his victory, 
would not take the risk of compromising it by leaving 
his position before Lee had abandoned his, in which he 
acted wisely, whatever may have been said to the con- 
trary. 

The afternoon was thus spent in first picking up our 
wounded and afterwards those of the enemy. The 
ambulance wagons were hardly enough for the work. 
The litter-bearers placed the wounded along on our 
lines, where they had to await their turn to be taken to 
the rear. We did what we could to make the delay as 
short as possible, for many of them were brave South- 
ern boys, some having enlisted because they honestly 
believed it was their duty, others torn by force from 
their families, to be embodied in the rebel army by the 
inexorable conscription. After the defeat, they were 
resigned, without boasting, and expressed but one 
wish : that the war should terminate as soon as possi- 
ble, since the triumph of the North appeared to be 
but a question of time. 

I recall to mind a young man from Florida, who told 
me his history. His name was Perkins, and he was 
scarcely twenty years old. The only son of aged par- 
ents, he had in vain endeavored to escape service. 
Tracked everywhere by the agents of the Richmond 
government, he had been forced to take up the musket, 
and had done his duty so well that he had been rapidly 
promoted to sergeant. In the last charge of the day 



5l6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

before, he had had his left heel carried away by a piece 
of shell, and his right hand shattered by a canister 
shot. One amputation, at least, probably two, was 
what he had to expect ; and yet he did not complain. 
But when he spoke of his aged parents awaiting his re- 
turn, and of the sad condition in which he would reen- 
ter the paternal home, his smile was more heart-breaking 
than any complaint. In order that his wounds might 
be sooner dressed, one of my aids, Lieutenant Hough- 
ton, let him have his horse, at the risk of marching on 
foot if we moved before the animal was returned. 

The next night we passed in the rain. It always 
rains on the day after a great battle. On the morning 
following we discovered the enemy to be in full retreat. 
Seeing that the attack he expected did not come off, 
and fearing for the safety of his communications with 
the Potomac, General Lee could do nothing else but 
retire through the mountains, which he did, during the 
night of the 4th and 5th of July. Then only began 
that disorder in his columns, and that confusion, the 
picture of which has been somewhat exaggerated ; an 
almost inevitable consequence, besides, to that kind of 
movement. Our cavalry began to harass him on his 
flanks, while the Sixth Corps, having remained intact, 
pressed on his rearguard. 

The difficulties that General Sedgwick met in the 
pass of Fairfield, where the enemy had intrenched, 
probably made General Meade fear that a direct pur- 
suit would entail too great a loss of time in the moun- 
tains. So, instead of following Lee in the valley of the 
Cumberland, he decided to march on a parallel line, to 
the east of the South Mountains. He thus continued 
to keep between Washington and the Confederate army ; 
but the road was much longer, and it was very doubt- 
ful whether he could overtake his adversary before the 



THE PURSUIT, 



517 



latter had repassed the Potomac. In any event, in 
order to hold him back, General French, who was at 
Frederick with a part of the garrison of Harper's Ferry, 
received orders to send a force of cavalry to destroy 
the bridge of boats which the Confederates had left at 
Williamsport. The different army corps were only 
moved out in succession. The last of them left Gettys- 
burg on the 7th, after having buried the dead. 

On the 8th we passed through Frederick, occupied 
by the Seventh New York militia. The march of the 
9th brought us to Turner's Gap, where the fight of 
South Mountain had served as a prelude to the battle 
of Antietam. There, French's division was assigned 
to the Third Corps, which, since the late battle, had 
counted no more than six or seven thousand men. 
They were troops new to the Army of the Potomac. 
While we were fighting in Virginia, they had guarded 
the railroads, and garrisoned Harper's Ferry, Winches- 
ter, and Martinsburg, where they had made but a poor 
show, when Ewell had presented himself. Amongst us 
they took the place of those whom we had left on the field 
of battle of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg ; but they 
did not replace those. What the Third Corps gained 
in numbers it lost in homogeneity. On this account 
the new-comers were never fully naturalized in the 
corps. The veterans of Sickles, refractory to the 
union, maintained their autonomy by the designation 
universally adopted amongst them : " The Third Corps 
as we understand it." 

General French took command by right of seniority. 
He was no stranger to us, having already served in our 
army. But the manner in which he exercised his new 
authority was not calculated to render him popular. 
On the other hand, at this time, generals were sent to 
us whose choice was as unjust as it was maladroit. 



5l8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Was this the time to send hurriedly to the army, with 
the stars of brigadier-generals, men utter strangers to 
the military career, men whose overweening vanity had 
led them to seek for duties of which they had not the 
most rudimentary notions ? When we had just saved 
the country, by a sacrifice of one-third of our number, 
the glorious vacancies left in our ranks, instead of 
being filled by officers who for two years had not 
ceased to suffer and to fight, who had offered their 
lives on so many battlefields, who a hundred times 
had given proof of courage and capacity, — was it just, 
was it honorable, to reserve a part of these vacancies to 
favor or to corruption, and to bring forth from the bar- 
rooms of New York some political intriguer to com- 
mand heroic soldiers ? The plague of politics was 
again manifested, and the government displayed its fee- 
bleness before the eyes of the whole world, by sacri- 
ficing to political influence those who had earned their 
grades by services in the field. 

It appeared as though on the morrow after Gettys- 
burg General Meade was strong enough to maintain 
the rights of those to whom he owed the honor of the 
victory and the prestige of success. But General 
Meade was himself struggling with difficulties, which 
absorbed all his attention. His promotion to the com- 
mand of the army was not made without creating jeal- 
ousies, more or less secret, amongst the corps com- 
manders, his colleagues of yesterday, his subordinates 
to-day. He was not one of those formed to take the 
ascendancy over men by that greatness of character for 
whom power is an easy instrument, and who appear 
born to command. On the other hand, although his 
personal valor and his military capacity were incon- 
testable, his services had not been so brilliant as to 
eclipse those of his rivals. He was, besides, more 



THE PURSUIT. 



519 



reserved than audacious, more modest than presumptu- 
ous, on which account he treated his corps commanders 
rather as friends than as inferiors. 

In taking command of the army, he had been able to 
say, in all sincerity, that he had not expected it or 
sought for it ; that he took it with a distrust in his own 
ability, but that he relied on the cordial assistance of 
his companions in arms to aid him in fulfilling all the 
duties of the important trust confided to him. Ani- 
mated by these sentiments, in the night of the 2d and 
3d, and in that of the 3d and 4th of July, that is to 
say, during and after the battle of Gettysburg, he had 
consulted his generals as to what appeared to them the 
best course to pursue. This he did also on the 12th, 
when we found ourselves facing the Confederates near 
Williamsport. 

They had reached that point long before us, and, 
although their bridge of boats had been destroyed, they 
would have passed the Potomac at the ford without 
difificulty if the heavy rains had not raised the river too 
high. This mishap held them three days. If it 
allowed us to overtake them, it also gave them time to 
intrench in. a strong position. General Meade made 
the dispositions to attack the enemy in his works. 
Personally, he would have desired to finish his work, 
and complete his victory, by destroying the army of 
Lee. The President encouraged him therein through 
General Halleck, who, on his side, pushed forward all 
the reenforcements he had at his disposal. Only these 
reenforcements were purely illusory. They were New 
York militia, who, according to General Couch's report, 
" marched as though they were ready to stop at the 
least appearance of danger before them," or Pennsylva- 
nia militia, who, after the enemy had left, refused to go 
further than the State line, or, again, the nine-months 



520 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

men, commanded by a lawyer, and who demanded 
before marching that they should be put under the 
command of a soldier. 

It was not on such reenforcements that Meade could 
rely. Reduced to its own numbers, would the Army 
of the Potomac be sufficient for the task ? This was 
the question. On one side it was argued that the 
enemy, demoralized by his defeat, and short of ammu- 
nition, was incapable of offering a prolonged resistance. 
But these were conjectures rather than facts. Where 
our cavalry had attacked him, he had received it in a 
manner to relieve it from the desire of persisting in the 
attempt. And, then, he was behind intrenchments 
difficult to approach, which rendered the issue of an 
assault very doubtful. 

But, however that might have been, I think it would 
have been better to have attacked. Our men were full 
of ardor, and asked only to make a finish of it. That 
fact made it worth the trouble to make a strong effort, 
and to take a new risk. In any event, there was every- 
thing to gain and nothing to lose. If we succeeded, the 
road to Richmond was opened before us ; if we failed, 
the road to Washington was still closed to them. Even 
putting the worst face on matters, we could have fallen 
back to South Mountain, and they never could have 
forced the defiles, should they make the effort, which 
would be very doubtful. The most probable result 
would have been that, content with having repulsed 
our last attack, the advantage they would have from 
being able to cross the river in entire security would 
have satisfied them. 

General Meade must have come to this conclusion in 
the morning of the 12th of July, for at an early hour a 
circular sent out from headquarters ordered the army 
to get ready to attack. At nine o'clock the movement 



THE PURSUIT. 



521 



began. At eleven we drew near the enemy's lines. 
Our forces were drawn up in line of battle and in col- 
umns, with artillery in the intervals. But a few troops 
remained to be put in position. There followed a 
delay, during which the rain began to fall, and did not 
cease during the rest of the day. In fine, the attack 
was put off till the morrow. 

During the night the general commanding, oppressed 
with the weight of the responsibility bearing upon 
him, convoked his corps commanders in a council of 
war. There were present Sedgwick, Slocum, Sykes, 
French, Pleasonton, and Warren (commanding the 
engineers). Hays represented the Second Corps, in the 
absence of Hancock and Gibbon, both wounded ; Wads- 
worth the First Corps, in place of Newton, sick. 

General Meade briefly laid before them the state of 
affairs, and what he knew of the condition of the 
enemy's forces ; and then he asked them to give him 
their opinion as to the advisability of attacking the 
ne.xt morning. Five of them advised clearly against 
it ; the other four in favor of it. It must be re- 
marked, on this point, that of the five negative votes 
four were from the generals holding the highest posi- 
tions in service and by rank, that is to say, of those to 
whom the faults and the eventual retirement of Meade 
offered some chance of profit. I state the fact, without 
drawing any conclusions, though really one might ask 
if it is not inherent in our poor human nature to in- 
stinctively lean towards the side where our interests lie. 

The generals wishing to fight had nothing person- 
ally to gain in the question. The opinion of Howard 
was without weight, because the behavior of his troops 
at Gettysburg had not been such as to regain the con- 
fidence which they had lost at Chancellorsville. Wads- 
worth, who was only there to take the place of another, 



522 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

could not exert a sensible influence on the deliberation. 
Pleasonton was as yet assigned only temporarily to the 
command of the cavalry. Warren, as chief of engineers, 
had but a consulting voice. So that the discussion was 
rather hurried than full. Sedgwick, Slocum, Sykes, and 
French relied more on the preponderance of their votes 
than on the strength of their arguments. They stated 
in general terms that we had gained a great victory, 
and that we ought not to run the risk of compromising 
the results ; that, if our army was routed, there was 
nothing behind it to cover Washington and Baltimore. 
One of them even advanced the opinion that the enemy 
would attack us, if we did not attack him, and that we 
would, in that case, have the advantage of the de- 
fensive. 

This, as will be seen, was not conclusive. Warren 
easily demonstrated that an attack, if repulsed, would 
not result at all in the destruction of our army ; while 
a victorious attack would necessarily bring on the de- 
struction of Lee's army. The advantage remained with 
us to act on the defensive, in any event, whether behind 
Antietam Creek or in the passes of South Mountain. 
As to the idea that Lee, beaten, driven back to the 
Potomac, and only seeking the opportunity to return to 
Virginia, might come out and attack us if we left him 
alone, there was really no occasion to waste time in 
arguing that point. General Meade closed the discus- 
sion, by declaring that he was in favor of attacking ; 
that he had come to Williamsport to fight the enemy, 
and that he saw no convincing reason to do differently ; 
that, however, in face of the formal opposition of his 
chiefs of corps, he would not assume the exclusive 
responsibility of giving battle. 

There was one point to which I do not see that any 
allusion was made. I mean the possibility of turning 



THE PURSUIT. 523 

the enemy's position. Pleasonton must have known 
something about it. In his " History of the Campaigns 
of the Army of the Potomac," Swinton says, positively, 
that the position of Lee along Marsh Creek might have 
been turned. " By throwing his right forward on the 
Conecocheague, Meade would have drawn his army out 
of that difficult region of woods and hills where he found 
himself, and where all the advantages of position were 
greatly in favor of the Confederates, and would have 
placed himself on ground where he would have occu- 
pied the heights commanding the river. Then he 
would have extended beyond the Confederate left, 
zvhich tvas in the air. In that position, Meade would 
have attacked with the advantages as much in his favor 
as in the other position they were against him." But 
it does not appear that this very important question was 
taken into consideration.' 

The next day passed away without anything new 
occurring. However, although Meade had followed the 
opinions of his corps commanders, he had not definitely 
abandoned his project. He had only put off its execu- 
tion for one day, in hopes of seeing the arrival of the 
fantastical reenforcements, which the telegraph an- 
nounced to him, almost from hour to hour. The night 
having come without their appearance, he returned to his 
first determination, and issued all the orders necessary 
for a ge-neral attack at daylight. Accordingly, on the 
14th, at sunrise, we marched against the enemy's in- 
trenchments. They were vacant. The enemy had 
succeeded in reestablishing his bridgeof boats, and Hill's 
and Longstreet's corps had crossed over under cover 
of the night. Ewell's corps had crossed at a ford, a 
little higher up. 

The cavalry, thrown forward immediately, was in 
time to capture two thousand prisoners, two guns, a few 



524 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

flags, and a quantity of arms. General Pettigrew, who 
commanded the rearguard of the Confederates, was 
killed in the fight. This was all remaining in our 
hands of that Virginia army which we had thought 
utterly in our power. 

If our disappointment was great, that of the country 
was greater still. During several days, the public feel- 
ing had been very much excited by a triumphal series 
of great news. On the 3d, the victory of Gettysburg 
had put an end to the invasion of Pennsylvania ; on the 
4th, the anniversary day of national independence, 
Vicksburg, the citadel of the South on the Mississippi, 
had fallen under the blows of General Grant, and on 
the 8th Port Hudson had surrendered to Banks. The 
navigation of the " Father of Waters " was at last re- 
opened to us throughout its entire length, and the rebel 
Confederacy found itself cut in twain. What news was 
there left to hear .'' The destruction of Lee's forces. 
They counted upon it ; they considered it certain ; and 
behold, suddenly the news broke upon them that the 
rebel army had escaped, for the second time, from the 
soil which ought to have swallowed it up. 

On the 7th, the President had written this note to 
General Halleck : "Vicksburg surrendered to General 
Grant on the 4th of July. Now, if General Meade can 
complete the work so gloriously carried on so far, by 
the literal and complete destruction of Lee's army, the 
rebellion is finished." And on the same day Meade 
received his appointment as brigadier-general in the 
regular army. Then came successively a series of 
telegrams from General Halleck, concluding thus, 
" Make a finish of the enemy before he crosses the 
Potomac ; do not let him escape ! " 

On the 14th, the tenor of the despatch was completely 
changed : " I hardly need say to you that the escape of 



THE RURSUIT. 



525 



Lee's army without another battle has greatly dis- 
pleased the President, and you must make an active 
and energetic pursuit, to do away with the impression 
that he has not been sufficiently pressed up to this 
time." 

General Meade replied immediately, "Having done 
my duty conscientiously, and to the best of my ability, 
the censure of the President, conveyed in your despatch 
of to-day, is, in my judgment, so undeserved that I feel 
compelled to respectfully ask to be immediately relieved 
from the command of the army." 

As a matter of course, this request was not granted. 
The victor of Gettysburg could not thus be put aside 
on the very morrow of his triumph, and generals capa- 
ble of commanding the army did not spring up so 
quickly on the banks of the Potomac that it was easy 
to replace them. Nevertheless, there remained an un- 
favorable impression in public opinion, which, without 
stopping to inquire the cause, saw only the result, 
namely : that Meade had let Lee escape, and every- 
thing had to be commenced over again. 

As at the former invasion of Maryland, Lee retired 
by the valley of the Shenandoah without hurrying; and, 
like McClellan, but much more rapidly, Meade marched 
on a parallel line, by way of the Loudon valley, follow- 
ing the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge. On the 15th, 
we crossed the battlefield of Antietam, on our way to 
Harper's Ferry. We looked over that ground, taken 
and retaken five times successively on the morning of 
the i/tn of September. The little church still showed 
the holes made by the balls, which had not left a door 
or window. Its roof, broken in, hung in pieces. All 
the trees of the neighboring woods were literally 
riddled with balls. In the surrounding fields, little 
mounds of earth, and a few pieces of board with names 



526 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

on them half effaced, marked the places of the for- 
gotten dead. The village of Sharpsburg still showed 
the scars of war, on the sides of its houses. 

On the 17th, we crossed the Potomac at Harper's 
Ferry, and, turning Loudon Heights below the mouth 
of the Shenandoah, we pursued our route in the direc- 
tion of Upperville, where we camped on the 20th. 
There we halted for a day ; we had marched too fast. 
Meade regulated his march by that of his adversary, 
watching for an occasion to strike him in the flank, on 
the other side of the mountains. 

This occasion presented itself on the 22d. The Con- 
federate army, marching in a long column up the valley 
of the Shenandoah, had to pass before Manassas Gap, 
whose mouth, near Front Royal, it had covered by but 
a feeble division. That day, the Second, the Third, and 
the Fifth Corps were at the other end of the Gap. 
They received orders to throw themselves rapidly on the 
enemy, sweep away the few troops found there, and cut 
his column in two. Nothing was easier. The Third 
Corps entered the pass first. Unfortunately, the Third 
Corps had fallen into the hands of an incapable general, 
and, of his two division commanders, Birney was absent, 
and Humphreys, promoted to major-general and to the 
position of chief of the staff of the army, was replaced 
by General Prince, an officer who had served, I believe, 
in North Carolina. No one knew anything about him. 
As to the division just added to the corps, it was not 
considered as yet, except as a memorandum. It must 
have been somewhere behind. I have forgotten, or 
never knew, who commanded it at that time. 

We penetrated into the pass without finding anything 
in front of us, which did not prevent General French 
from taking so many precautions that for a long time 
we thought it was not a question of forcing the passage. 



THE PURSUIT. 



527 



but of defending it. We passed the night near a farm- 
house some distance in the niountains. 

On the morning of the 23d, I received orders to form 
my brigade in line of battle on an uneven plateau, on 
the right of the line ; then, after a while, the direction 
having been rectified by General French himself, 
marched directly forward. At the same time, Ward 
crossed the destroyed railroad, and obliqued to the left 
with the two other brigades. At the other side of the 
plateau, I found myself facing a ravine deeply cut down 
between two steep slopes, covered with a fine thicket. 
We passed this obstacle by breaking by the right of 
divisions to the front, and, when we had surmounted 
the opposite slope, the line was promptly reestablished 
on a second and higher plateau. From that position I 
could see distinctly that the other brigades had turned 
to the left as well as the Second Division, in the same 
direction as the gaps, the bend of which I was about to 
pass. The order of march, " directly forward," was so 
explicit that I concluded the object of my isolated 
movement must be to cover the gorge, in which 
the railroad ran in a straight line. However, in the 
doubt, I placed myself, with my officers and my guidon, 
on the most prominent point, and ordered a halt, to see 
if new orders would not be sent to me. Ward's right 
was at the bottom of the pass. Between the road 
which he was following and the foot of the mountain 
was a vacancy, which seemed to me to be my place, and 
I did not understand why they should leave me behind, 
instead of having me occupy it, following the general 
movement. 

Our line was moving away now in the prolongation 
of my left. The skirmishers ascended the slope of a 
mountain, less elevated, and not so sharp as the others. 
When they arrived near the summit, the border of the 



528 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

woods which stretched out before them was spotted 
with puffs of white smoke, which told me that the 
advance posts of the enemy were opening fire on them. 
They replied immediately with spirit ; then, in a few 
minutes, an officer on horseback passed in front of them 
at a gallop, returned towards the centre, and the whole 
line burst forward on a run towards the woods, which 
they swept in a flash. The line of battle then passed 
a roll of ground, behind which I lost it from view. 

At this instant a staff officer was remarked who was 
coming towards us at a gallop. He brought me the 
order that I had expected, and explained to me that, in 
directing me to march straight ahead, it had been for- 
gotten to add that it was only a precaution to have me 
take my distance, to avoid the crowding together to- 
wards the centre of the line of which I formed the turn- 
ing wing. In any event, the movement was badly ar- 
ranged. Since the enemy did not occupy the elbow of 
the pass, the simplest way would have been to form the 
front in line of battle beyond that point and without 
wheeling. But, if they must absolutely lose time in use- 
less evolutions, they should have been executed correctly 
and caused, at least, two brigades to wheel by battalion 
in a body. 

We descended from the plateau to take position on 
the right of the Second Division, which separated us 
from Ward. The movement appeared to come to a 
halt without anybody knowing why. The Seventeenth 
Maine was detached to sustain a battery at the left of 
the road, where, however, were placed all the troops ex- 
cept my brigade and the Twentieth Indiana, deployed 
there as skirmishers before my arrival. The One Hun- 
dred and Tenth Pennsylvania was posted in advance of 
a group of houses on our front. Separated from my di- 
vision, I did not know what they wished to do ; but it 



THE PURSUIT. 



529 



appeared to me that, whatever it might be, they did not 
know how to get about it. Finally, they advanced. 

One brigade of the Second Division was selected to 
dislodge the enemy from the nearest hill-top. That 
brigade was one commanded by one of the political 
generals recently sent to the army, and, naturally, he 
did not know the first thing about his new profession. 
An aid came to bring him the order to form his regi- 
ments in double column on the centre, to ascend the 
hill, and to deploy them in line of battle on approaching 
the summit. The improvised general repeated the order 
to himself, but did not understand it any better. — 
" Very well ; double column — yes — on the centre." — 
He repeated the words to himself, looking for some one 
to help him out, when he saw, a few paces distant, 
Colonel Brewster of the Seventy-third New York. 
Brewster was a brave soldier and a good officer sup- 
planted in the command of the brigade by this chief, 
who knew less than the poorest of his corporals. 
" Colonel," said the general, calling him near, " you 
heard what the man said .■* " (He meant the aide-de- 
camp). " Yes," replied Brewster. " Well ! Do it, 
then, do it." On his part he saw it done, and, wishing 
to show that if he were ignorant he was not a coward, 
he followed the movement and went on caracoling his 
horse under fire. He returned with a ball in his 
foot and another in his hip, and we never saw him 
again. 

A regiment of the Third Division was sent to me as 
a reenforcement. It was full in numbers, almost as 
large alone as my whole brigade ; but it had never been 
under fire, and I believed it to be more prudent to leave 
it in reserve than to put it in line. 

We continued to drive the enemy back out of the 
pass, but slowly and without engaging other troops than 



530 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

a brigade and a line of skirmishers. The latter, seeing 
that there was only skirmishing going on, took things 
easily. One could see them, while keeping up their fire, 
regale themselves on blackberries, which the unculti- 
vated fields yielded abundantly at that season of the 
year. 

The sun went down at this state of affairs, and Gen- 
eral French put off serious business until the morrow. 
Now, in the morning, the enemy's army had passed be- 
yond Manassas Gap, and the few troops we had before 
us had gone on to join his rearguard. We went on to 
the mouth of the pass, from where we could enjoy for 
a short time a magnificent view of the valley ; after 
which we made a half-wheel to the right, and returned 
to the point from which we had started. 

A few days afterward, finding myself in command of 
the pickets, I had to receive my instructions directly 
from General French. I found a large man with a red 
nose, a flushed face, a bald forehead, a dull look. Near 
him, a. glass and a bottle of whiskey appeared to be on 
the table en permanence. He made me sit down, said 
a few words to me on the ofificial object of my visit, 
and, making continual grimaces, the effect of a nervous 
affection, began on a subject which he appeared to have 
at heart. The occasion lost by his unskilfulness at 
Manassas Gap had been the subject of comment not at 
all flattering, and the general commanding had been 
very much disappointed. French endeavored then to 
justify himself on all occasions. He began by compli- 
menting me on what I had done at his extreme right, 
which seemed to me less flattering than surprising, see- 
ing I had done nothing at all. The only regiment en- 
gaged on my side was the Twentieth Indiana, which did 
not belong to me, and, in my brigade, I had lost but one 
man, killed by chance. Without waiting my reply, he 



THE PURSUIT. 



531 



launched into a confused dissertation on the fine things 
he considered that he had accomplished on this occa- 
sion. His great argument consisted in this : that, ex- 
cept one brigade, he had used nothing but skirmishers 
to sweep the pass, and that, by keeping his troops back, 
he had prevented the enemy from knowing where they 
were. He returned continually to this point, and inter- 
rupted himself at each instant to say to me, "Do you 
see the point ? Do you understand the point ? " What 
I understood very clearly was that his ideas were very 
much confused. He did not appear to suspect that his 
system of skirmishers was just the unskilfulness which, 
by causing us to lose precious time, prevented our cut- 
ting in two the long column of Lee, or, at least, of cut- 
ting off his rearguard. He kept me for a long time in 
order to go over the same things, and, as I put my foot 
in the stirrup at the entrance to his tent, he kept re- 
peating, " You understand the point, do you not .-* " 

Poor Third Corps ! Your best days were over. 

On the 26th, we arrived at Warrenton, where General 
Birney returned to take command of the division. The 
Confederates having halted at Culpeper, our army was 
again posted along the Rappahannock. On the 31st, 
the right of our position was assigned to the Third 
Corps, and Birney's division pitched its tents around 
White Sulphur Springs. The pursuit was over. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

OPERATIONS DURING THE LATTER PART OF 1863. 

White Sulphur Springs — The Vallandigham affair — Plots of the Cop- 
perheads — Bloody riots in New York — Attitude of Governor 
Horatio Seymour — Western regiments sent to enforce the law — 
Reenforcements hurried to Tennessee — Advance on Culpeper — 
The Sharpshooters — Movement to the rear — The engagement at 
Auburn — Battle of Bristoe Station — Remarks — Visit of General 
Sickles — Battle at Rappahannock Station — Engagement at Kelly's 
Ford — March in line of battle — Mr. John Minor Botts between two 
racks — Mine Run affair — Death labels — Raid on Richmond. 

White Sulphur Springs is, as denoted by its name, a 
sulphur spring of great clearness. It is a few miles 
from Warrenton, in a beautiful country where the 
wooded hills, the green meadows, and the cultivated 
fields agreeably vary the landscape. Before the war, 
it was every summer one of the chosen rendezvous 
of Southern society. The planters liked to take their 
families and meet each other there, and, under pretext 
of taking the waters, to play heavily, drink hard, and get 
excited over politics. A large hotel offered them hos- 
pitality (well paid for), in the centre of a semicircle, 
formed by two rows of small cottages, for use of the 
families. All this in the midst of fine shade, in the 
centre of which the spring burst forth in a reservoir 
covered by a columned rotunda. But since that time 
the war had passed that way. Of the great architec- 
tural structure nothing remained but a heap of ruins, 
from the midst of which arose some columns blackened 
by the flames, and some pieces of walls half crumbled 
away. General Birney established his headquarters in 

5.^2 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 533 

the garden. A short distance away, and near the War- 
renton road, a clump of great oaks extends its shade in 
the midst of a field. There I pitched my tent, and for 
six weeks, except the usual drill, we were able to give 
ourselves up, without being disturbed, to the leisure life 
of the country. 

It was not the government, it was the Copperhead 
party which gave us this leisure. In this way : this 
party, closely affiliated to the cause of the rebellion, 
had not ceased, since the commencement of the war, to 
contrive every possible hindrance to the government. 
Compelled, at first, to bend before the patriotic enthu- 
siasm which had fired the free States, it had since be- 
come audacious, and by its manoeuvres it had obtained 
successes, much to be lamented, in the elections of 
the preceding autumn. 

One of its most violent and unscrupulous leaders 
was a certain Vallandigham, representative of one of 
the Ohio districts. He had, in Congress, constantly 
opposed every war measure, and, when the session had 
closed, he went into the country, to continue his sedi- 
tious diatribes against the national government. On 
the 1st of May, 1863, he ventured on a public speech, 
in which, after having heaped up beyond measure every 
injurious and lying accusation which he could invent 
against the administration, he finished by calling on 
the people directly to disobedience and sedition, in 
reference to an order of General Burnside, directed 
against those who aided and assisted the enemy. 

General Burnside, who then commanded that mili- 
tary department, caused the arrest of Vallandigham, 
and brought him before a court-martial at Cincinnati. 
A writ of habeas corpus was immediately produced in 
favor of the prisoner. But this privilege had been 
suspended by a proclamation of the President, in the 



534 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

month of September preceding, and Congress had 
fully sanctioned that measure, based on the explicit 
terms of the Constitution, in case of insurrection or 
invasion. The general refused to obey the writ, and 
his refusal was judicially approved. The military com- 
mission declared the accused guilty, and condemned him 
to imprisonment in one of the fortresses of the United 
States. The President, always indulgent, mitigated 
the sentence by ordering that the condemned should 
be sent into the enemy's lines, and forbidden to re- 
enter the loyal States before the conclusion of the war. 

At this the whole Copperhead party broke out in 
loud cries, and was furiously eager to avert the palm of 
martyrdom from its disciple. A great meeting was 
called at Albany, the capital of the State of New York, 
to that effect. Without appearing in person, Governor 
Seymour wrote a letter to it, denouncing the action of 
the government ; the orators of the second class were 
loud in their condemnation of the government, and 
finally adopted some resolutions which were sent to the 
President. He condescended to reply to them, in a 
communication as moderate in manner as conclusive in 
matter. This victorious refutation of the argument in- 
spired by treason did not prevent the agitation from 
spreading in the Democratic party, which, in Ohio, 
chose Vallandigham for its candidate for Governor. 

The new levy ordered by Congress, and the prepa- 
rations for the conscription for the States which had 
not filled their quotas with volunteers, furnished an- 
other opportunity to the allies of the rebels to annoy 
the government by unworthy means. Any pretext 
served them. The drawing was to begin in New York, 
on July II, eight days after the victory at Gettysburg, 
when Lee, still at bay, was on the left bank of the 
Potomac. The drawing went on peaceably enough on 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 535 

Saturday. The next day, seeing that, contrary to their 
expectations and notwithstanding their excitement, the 
people submitted to the measure, as legal and neces- 
sary, plotters stirred up all the foul parts of the city, to 
bring out from there the scum of the European popula- 
tion. The moment was favorable. New York was 
stripped of troops and of militia. Everything which 
could aid in driving back the invasion had been sent 
away to Pennsylvania and Maryland. There remained 
the police alone to fight the riot. 

Urged on by the hope of impunity, by the temptation 
of pillage, by underhand encouragement, the cursed 
brood, on Monday, came out from its dens, armed for 
pillage, murder, and fire. The conscription offices were 
attacked, sacked, and given up to flames. Then the 
bands of savages, spreading through the streets, began 
their work, hanging colored men, pursuing the officers 
employed in the conscription or partisans of the admin- 
istration pointed out to them for attack. They broke 
open the houses of individuals which seemed to promise 
them rich plunder, and burnt public buildings, among 
others an orphan asylum. For three days the city was 
delivered over to a horrible and bloody bacchanalian 
riot, in which the women and the children were engaged 
in thieving and even in murder. 

The police did its duty bravely ; it charged the rioters 
everywhere, wherever they assembled in force, and pro* 
tected, as much as was within its power, both persons 
and property. But, to put an end to this ignoble 
anarchy, it was necessary to await the return of the 
militia, recalled in haste to the defence of their families 
and their firesides. Then the repression was prompt 
and energetic. After the street fights, the police was 
able to state that twelve hundred of these rioting rob- 
bers were buried. By adding to this number the secret 



536 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

burials which escaped the search, the very large num- 
ber of wounded cared for in their families and in the 
hospitals, and the convictions afterward in the courts, 
it would be found that the punishment was equal to the 
crime. Under the democratic polity, society does not 
depend on the government to defend it. It knows how 
to protect itself. 

The Governor, Horatio Seymour, whose attitude and 
conduct towards the national government had been of 
a nature to encourage the riot, much more than to pre- 
vent it, thought only, in concert with his party, how he 
could turn the event to its profit, in order to prevent 
the conscription. Under pretext of finding out if some 
error had not crept into the account of the contingent 
furnished by the State, and of previously submitting 
the question of the constitutionality of the law to the 
judiciary, he asked the President that the resumption of 
the drawing should be indefinitely adjourned. The 
object of this attempt is easily seen. It was designed 
to dry up the sources of the reenforcements necessary 
to the armies, to diminish if not to annul the results of 
the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and, while 
the Confederate government was renewing its forces by 
a levy en masse, to reduce ours by stopping the con- 
scription and by discouraging volunteer enrolments. 
Such were the means by which the peace Democrats in 
the North hoped to bring about either a definite estab- 
lishment of a Southern Confederacy, or a formation of 
a new Union, based on the subjection of the free States 
to the power of the slave States. 

The President refused to accede to the request, in 
a communication giving his reasons, dated August 7. 
On the next day, the Governor insisted on producing 
documents prepared for the case by Judge Waterbury. 
The resumption of the drawing was nevertheless ordered 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 537 

for August 19, and, to prevent the possibility of new 
violence on the part of the partisans of the rebellion, 
several regiments of the Army of the Potomac were sent 
to New York. Among the number were the Third and 
the Fifth Michigan, whose departure reduced my bri- 
gade still more considerably, although the Ninety-ninth 
Pennsylvania was transferred to me to replace them. 
Some other troops were taken from some of the other 
divisions. They chose preferably those belonging to 
the Western States. Their presence was enough to 
prevent all opposition. 

At the same time, a considerable detachment was 
drawn from the Army of the Potomac to send to South 
Carolina. The result was that offensive operations 
had to be temporarily suspended. 

Along in the middle of September, General Meade 
received advice that Longstreet had left Lee's army to 
go to Tennessee. As he was preparing to immediately 
resume the campaign, it was announced to him from 
Washington that the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps were 
to be hurried off to the West, under the command of 
General Hooker. They soon departed, and ceased 
thereafter to form part of the Army of the Potomac. 

The five remaining corps, including the cavalry, could 
not furnish an effective force of more than fifty to sixty 
thousand men, in the absence of the troops sent to the 
State of New York, and who had not yet returned. 
Nevertheless, Meade did not judge it necessary to await 
their return, and on September 15 the army was put 
in motion. The cavalry crossed the Rappahannock first. 
We followed closely. On our approach, Lee abandoned 
Culpeper, and fell back with his whole force, behind the 
Rapidan, where we were forced to halt before the strong 
position he had taken. 

There the regiments that had been absent several 



538 FOUR YEARS Willi THE rOTOMAC ARMY. 

months rejoined us. You need not ask if there was 
not a joyful reunion. The Third and Fifth Michigan 
were welcomed in the brigade with endless cheers, to 
which they replied with no less enthusiasm. After so 
many battles that they had fought together, they were 
rejoiced to be again side by side for the battles remain- 
ing to be fought. It appeared, besides, that among 
them the time lost for war had been profitably employed 
otherwise. Colonel Pierce, recovered from his wound, 
told me that, during the ten or twelve days his regiment 
had stopped at Troy, thirty of his men had married. 
Now they could sing the popular couplet : — 

Nos amours ont dure toute une semaine. 

Ah ! que du bonheur les instants sont courts ! 

I trust that husbands and wives found each other 
after the war was over, and that the young Trojan 
lasses were not left behind, as was the spouse of pious 
.^neas. 

The Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania returned to the Sec- 
ond Brigade, to which it had always belonged ; but it 
was replaced in mine by the First Battalion of sharp 
shooters, and as, at the same time, the Seventeenth 
Maine received an accession of two hundred recruits, 
the number of my command was brought up to thirty- 
two hundred men, of whom more than two thousand 
were present in the ranks. 

The sharpshooters formed a special organization in 
the army. There were but two battalions raised in the 
whole United States by Colonel Berdan, composed ex- 
clusively of the best marksmen, who had to make proof 
of their skill before being admitted to the ranks. Their 
uniform was dark green, with horn buttons ; their arms, 
Sharp's breech-loading rifles. Fighting always as sharp- 
shooters, they had a firmness of hand and correctness 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 539 

of aim which rendered them particularly dangerous. 
At a distance which the rifled Springfield could not 
reach, their deadly balls struck the mark almost with 
certainty. Some few of them were armed at their own 
expense with long telescope rifles, and for them distance 
appeared to be annihilated. From these facts one can 
judge of the number of victims which the sharpshooters 
must have made in the ranks of the enemy. 

Culpeper, which we have so often mentioned, is a 
small city, or rather a large village, where there are a 
few pretty houses. Everything was, at this time, in 
disorder ; the stores were closed ; the inhabitants had 
disappeared. We found there only a very few negroes, 
either too young or too old to run away, and left there 
because they were not worth the trouble of taking 
away. We remained camped in that neighborhood 
until October 10. 

On the 6th, official information of a movement of 
Stuart's cavalry in the rear of our positions had already 
put us on the alert. Reconnoissances had been sent out 
in different directions, and on the 8th we were held 
ready to march at the shortest notice. The suspicion 
of a manoeuvre of Lee to turn our right became a cer- 
tainty when, on the loth, the advance posts of the 
Second Division were attacked at James City by the 
cavalry which covered the flank of the principal column 
of the Confederates. Then General Meade understood 
that the intention of his adversary was to cut his com- 
munications with Washington. The army fell back 
immediately on the Rappahannock. The Third Corps 
covered the retreat. 

We had hardly started in our turn, on the morning 
of the I ith, when a brigade of the enemy's cavalry pre- 
sented itself on our left flank. The division was 
formed in line of battle immediately, but the battalion 



540 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

of sharpshooters sufficed to cause the immediate dis- 
appearance of the horsemen who threatened us. Al- 
though our march was delayed by some confusion 
amongst the ammunition wagons and ambulances at 
the passage of Hazel River, we arrived in the afternoon 
on the heights which commanded Beverly Ford. From 
there we might have been witnesses of a cavalry combat 
on the plain if, after the first charge, all the details had 
not been lost in a thick cloud of dust, in the midst of 
which both friends and enemies disappeared in an in- 
stant. So that I can say nothing about it except that 
it was General Buford who opened the way through 
Stuart's troopers, endeavoring in vain to bar the pas- 
sage. At nine o'clock in the evening we passed over a 
bridge of boats, which the pontoniers took up from the 
water behind us. At midnight a portion of our troops 
bivouacked behind Freeman's Ford. 

Thwarted in his plans on the south bank of the 
Rappahannock, General Lee concluded to make a new 
trial on the north bank. He took up his movement 
again by way of Sulphur Springs, where General Gregg, 
at the head of a brigade of cavalry, was not strong 
enough to dispute his passage. But the resulting 
engagement unmasked the march of the enemy. From 
that time on, it was a race between the two armies, in 
which the advantage w-as not very much on our side. 
This is the manner of it : from Warrenton the two 
corps of Hill and Ewell, which composed all of Lee's 
forces, directed their march towards Bristoe Station by 
different roads, counting on coming together there to 
strike us in flank. If Meade had foreseen the move- 
ment, or if he had been advised of it in time, nothing 
would have been easier than for him to have received 
the attack at that point and in a favorable position, 
and it is quite likely that the enemy, having come out 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 541 

for wool, would have gone back shorn. Unfortunately, 
in the persuasion that Lee was endeavoring to precede 
us to Centreville, in order to put himself in a good 
position between us and Washington, the general 
commanding continued his retreating movement with- 
out stopping. 

That day (October 13) we had passed ahead of the 
Second Corps, commanded at that time by General 
Warren, who took French's place as rearguard. To- 
wards three o'clock in the afternoon we were about to 
reach the village of Auburn when the head of our 
column was unexpectedly welcomed by musket shots, 
near a wood whose border crossed the road in front of 
us. French, who marched with our division, had 
neglected to have the ground in front of the column 
reconnoitred by an advance guard. We were thus 
ignorant of what force confronted us. The First Bri- 
gade, commanded by Colonel Collis, was formed rapidly 
to the right. Mine, which followed, was developed in 
two lines to the left, while a section of artillery opened 
on the woods, from which a lively fire was maintained 
upon us. 

These dispositions taken, the order was given to the 
first line to charge. This was done briskly. On my 
side, the Fifth Michigan and the First Battalion of 
sharpshooters dashed forward on the run. The enemy 
had not time to give us a volley. We were upon him 
in an instant, and the woods were swept with little 
resistance. We found there only a brigade of dis- 
mounted cavalry. The rebels ran to their horses and 
disappeared, leaving in our hands only their dead and 
a few prisoners. 

We had halted on the edge of a steep ravine, at the 
bottom of which ran a brook over a stony bed. Beyond 
the ravine there was an open plain, in rear of a farm- 



542 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

house, whose front bordered the road beneath us. A 
few farm buildings were in the fields, five or six hundred 
yards further off. There appeared a group of horsemen, 
among whom was an officer affectedly caracoling his 
horse, stopping from time to time to examine our move- 
ments with a field glass. " Who will bring down that 
too inquisitive officer for me .'* " I asked of the sharp- 
shooters nearest to me. " We will try, colonel," they 
replied. They chose one of their number, who ad- 
vanced a few steps, and adjusted his sight with care. 
He fired. After a few seconds of watching, we saw the 
horse stagger, as if about to fall, then balance himself 
on three legs. The ball had struck the horse, instead 
of the horseman, who did not wait for a second trial of 
the range of the weapon, or of the skill of the marks- 
man. The whole group disappeared with him behind a 
wall, and we saw no more of them. 

During this time, our dead had been buried, and our 
wounded taken to the ambulances. The column re- 
sumed its line of march, preceded this time by an ad- 
vance guard. 

The next day, having crossed Bull Run, we had just 
taken position in the afternoon, on the height in front 
of Centreville, when a violent cannonade broke out at 
Bristoe Station, which we had passed a few hours be- 
fore. The Second Corps had come in collision with the 
enemy. Early in the morning, it had found itself in 
contact, on one side with Ewell's advance guard, and on 
the other with Stuart's cavalry. But the latter had not 
been able to stop its march, nor the former to delay it 
by skirmishing with Caldwell's division, which brought 
up the rear. 

At Bristoe Station, affairs took on a more serious 
aspect. The Fifth Corps, which Warren had counted 
on finding there, had gone on without waiting for him, 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 543 

when Hill's column presented itself. The latter imme- 
diately took measures to cut off the Second Corps, so 
as to throw it back on Ewell, and surround and destroy 
it between the two. But Warren guarded against the 
danger, with a promptness of decision and a rapidity of 
action which could not be too highly praised. He threw 
forward Hay's division behind a railroad embankment, 
which protected our men as an intrenchment, while he 
disposed Webb's division to receive the shock. So, 
when the enemy advanced in line of battle, he was wel- 
comed with such a fire, both of musketry and artillery, 
that his ranks were soon thrown in disorder. Without 
giving him time to reform, Warren pursued him with 
the bayonet at his back, and ended by carrying away 
from him five pieces of artillery, two flags, and five hun- 
dred prisoners. When Caldwell's division rejoined the 
other two, the affair was over ; Hill was driven back, 
and Ewell, pursuing his road by Greenwich, had not yet 
appeared. 

From the heights where Warren joined us, during 
the night, we could follow with our eyes the different 
phases of the combat. It was the first time that this 
young general had commanded a corps in action. This 
beginning did him much honor. 

I have often asked myself the question, why the 
army remained motionless while Warren, left to himself, 
had to contend alone against forces much superior to 
his own ; and why General Meade did not profit by this 
first success, to return against the enemy with all his 
forces, and give him battle in a position which was not 
disadvantageous, and which fully filled the permanent 
requirement of always covering Washington. It is cer- 
tain that, in this whole retrograde movement from Cul- 
peper to Centreville, Meade adopted the most prudent 
course, and the safest ; but it must be said it was not 



544 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the most glorious. It completely upset Lee's plan, 
which was to turn our positions, and plant himself 
across our communications with Washingthon. The 
question is whether he would have made as much by 
that manceuvre as he expected. 

It must be remarked that success would have put 
him in a shape identical with our own. In placing him- 
self between us and Washington, he put us between him 
and Richmond. I am well aware that he would have 
willingly left the road to the Confederate capital en- 
tirely free to us, if the road to the federal capital were 
abandoned to him. But he could not reckon on that. 
The exchange would have been too much in his favor. 
Suppose we had allowed him to do so at Culpeper. In 
what respect would his position have been better than 
ours .-* We had our backs to the Rapidan ; he had his 
to the Rappahannock. Our forces were, at least, as 
numerous as his, and our veteran soldiers equal to his. 

What if he had continued to march to the north .-* As 
we had the interior line, we could not fail to overtake 
him. He arrived at Warrenton before us, which did 
not prevent our preceding him at Bristoe Station, when 
he presented himself there. There, too, we could have 
awaited him as we did at Auburn or Greenwich, and 
obtained a victory much more important than the 
success of Warren, which was more brilliant than 
fruitful. 

Admit, finally, that, persisting in refusing battle, Lee 
had preceded us at Centreville. He would have been 
in a formidable position. But how would he subsist 
his army there .'' For us, the Potomac, of which we 
were masters, was always an open way by which to re- 
plenish. Hunger, which brings the wolf out of the 
woods, would then force the enemy from his position, 
to fight us under conditions which would be so much 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 545 

the worse for him in proportion as he was away from 
his base and his communications were difficult. 

As to marching on Washington with two army corps, 
without any possible means of crossing the Potomac 
immediately, and when we were at his heels, that is an 
hypothesis which it is not necessary to stop to consider. 

In fine, it would have been more profitable, it would 
certainly have been more glorious, to give battle to the 
Confederates, on any point whatever of the road travelled 
over, than to undertake to run a race with them for 
celerity of movement. General Meade himself so ex- 
pressed himself before the Congressional committee ; 
but one does not always do what he wishes, above all in 
war, and, in his uncertainty as to the aim and the move- 
ments of his adversary, he determined to follow the line 
of conduct which offered the least risk. 

However that might be, General Lee, seeing his plans 
foiled, had nothing to do but return on his steps. As 
much to delay our pursuit as to get some result from 
his excursion, on retiring, he destroyed the railroad 
from Bristoe Station to the Rappahannock, for a dis- 
tance of about twenty-five miles. 

On the next day, the 15th, Sickles arrived at the damp 
of our division at Fairfax Station. Led by his ardor, 
he came to ask to resume his command, thinking that a 
battle was imminent. The general-in-chief thought, 
not without reason, that he was not yet able to endure 
the hardships of service and fulfil all the duties incum- 
bent on the position he asked for amongst us. He 
could walk only on a crutch, and could not yet support 
the pressure of an artificial leg. The welcome given 
him by his two old divisions went far to console him 
for his disappointment. 

The fact of his arrival at the Station was scarcely 
known when all his Gettysburg regiments formed with- 



546 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

out arms, in double line, along the road he must take to 
reach General Birney's headquarters. The latter had 
gone to meet the maimed hero, with a wagon drawn by 
four horses. Their appearance was the signal for a 
thunder of acclamations, such as I have seldom heard. 
The wagon passed at a walk, from one end to the other 
of the line ; explosions of hurrahs burst forth on the 
passage of the carriage, and were kept up long after it 
was at a distance. Caps were thrown into the air ; and 
the welcome was most enthusiastic. And when the 
general had entered Birney's tent, surrounded by the 
brigade commanders, the men assembled around in 
throngs, for a long time giving expression to their joy. 

It must be acknowledged that this reception was not 
only a manifestation in honor of the old corps com- 
mander, but also a protest against the successor given 
to us. In war, soldiers know how to appreciate the 
value of their generals. It is not by becoming addicted 
to some vulgar vice forbidden amongst themselves, or 
by making of his authority an instrument of intrigues, 
that one acquires their confidence, but simply by being 
worthy of commanding. Be just, and you can be severe 
without arousing any resentment, even amongst those 
who may deserve punishment. Be partial, and your in- 
dulgence for some, with your severity towards others, 
will bring the contempt of all. At the bottom of his 
heart, the soldier always has a feeling of uprightness, 
which governs the judgment he passes on his chiefs. 
His greatest welfare hangs directly upon it, for often 
his life may depend on an order well or badly inspired. 
This is why poor generals spoil good soldiers, and good 
generals reform poor soldiers. 

The same men fight very differently, according to 
who commands them. If they have confidence in their 
commander, they will dash upon the enemy witli an 



THE LATIER PART OF 1 863. 547 

enthusiasm without reserve, for they know that the 
regiment will not be compromised without necessity, 
and that, if they must die, their death will at least be 
useful to the cause to which they are devoted. But if 
they feel that they are poorly led, and if they are afraid 
of being sacrificed without result, from lack of judgment 
or by an intellect obscured by the fumes of whiskey, 
their enthusiasm gives place to indecision. They will 
go through fire in obedience to discipline, and to save 
their amour propre ; and if they encounter a stubborn 
resistance, where they would have gone in and forced a 
position without counting their losses, one may be 
assured that they will fall back, blaming the chief, 
whom, their mistrust makes responsible for the check. 
It is, then, not surprising that when soldiers find the 
occasion they will show forth somewhat noisily their 
interest in the general assigned to them. 

Heavy rains, making the fords of Bull Run impassa- 
ble, kept us three days near Centreville. The enemy 
profited by it, to destroy the railroad, burning the ties 
and bending the rails which they could not carry away. 
We had then to repair the destruction before retaking 
the offensive beyond the Rappahannock, where Lee had 
retired. The work was done with remarkable rapidity. 
A fortnight sufficed to complete it. As the work ad- 
vanced, we changed camp, and oftener still as far as our 
division was concerned. General French appeared to 
take pleasure in having us move. The hurrahs for 
General Sickles yet sounded in his ears. 

At Bristoe Station, Broad Run was crossed and re- 
crossed three times by our men, with the water to their 
waists. At Catlett Station, we were continually moved 
without any cause or reason, sometimes in the middle 
of the night. In such case, General French remained 
invisible in his tent, where no one was admitted to 



548 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

disturb his mysterious slumbers. One night, General 
Birney, tired of his fantasies, neglected to obey. He 
appealed to Philip sober, who, when morning came, did 
not venture to ask why his orders of the evening before 
had not been obeyed — if he even remembered having 
given the orders. 

On November 6, the railroad being completed. 
General Meade resolved to retake the offensive by for- 
cing the passage of the Rappahannock at two points at 
once. The Fifth and the Sixth Corps were ordered to 
attack at the point where the railroad crosses the river ; 
the First, Second, and Third Corps, at Kelly's Ford, a 
few miles below. The movement commenced at day- 
light on the 7th. 

The right column encountered the greatest opposi- 
tion. A division of Ewell's corps held a strong posi- 
tion at that point, defended by a redoubt and intrench- 
ments, protected by the fire of several batteries of 
artillery. A vigorous charge of two brigades of the 
Sixth Corps, commanded by General Russell, decided 
the matter. The redoubt was carried. With it the 
enemy lost fifteen hundred prisoners and four guns, 
without counting the dead and wounded. 

At Kelly's Ford, the obstacles were less serious. 
The attack was intrusted to my brigade, which, for 
that occasion, was reenforced by the Twentieth Indiana, 
and the Second Battalion of sharpshooters. We arrived 
on the wooded heights, which command the river, with- 
out giving the alarm to the enemy. It was not until 
they saw us descending to the river banks that they 
ran to throw themselves into the intrenchments which 
defended the ford, at the same time advancing a bat- 
tery ; but General Birney had already put some guns in 
position above a bend in the river, which took it while 
in motion, and compelled it to turn away from them. 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 549 

Then it presented its side to some other guns in posi- 
tion on my right, which were only awaiting this oppor- 
tunity to open fire. Assaulted from both sides at once, 
it was soon reduced to silence, and compelled to retire. 

During the cannonade I had thrown forward the 
sharpshooters, commanded by Colonel Tripp, to the 
edge of the river, and behind them my other regiments, 
whom I held massed in rear of a roll in the ground 
near by. Colonel Tripp had improvised some protec- 
tion for two or three of his companies, on the most 
elevated part of the bank, from which they kept up so 
deadly a fire on the opposite intrenchments that the 
enemy did not dare to show himself, except occasionally 
for a chance shot. Profiting by this advantage, the rest 
of the battalion entered resolutely into the water. 
This was the signal. I pushed forward behind them, 
followed by the Fortieth New York, the Twentieth Ind- 
iana, the Third and the Fifth Michigan, and the One 
Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania. Even before I had 
reached the opposite bank, my skirmishers, led by Lieu- 
tenants Aschmann and Garrison, had carried the first 
line of rifle-pits, and planted their flags on the parapets. 
The second line did not hold out long ; then, without 
stopping, we advanced on the village on the run. The 
enemy, who did not expect us there so soon, offered 
little resistance, and surrendered with a good grace. 

They were principally North Carolina troops, who 
appeared to me to be more glad than sorry to throw 
down their arms and accoutrements in order to run to 
the rear. After this, there remained only a light work 
in form of a demilune, isolated in the middle of a field. 
It was occupied by fifty men, who preferred to let them- 
selves be taken to flying across the open ground. This 
affair did not cost us a hundred men, and brought us in 
more than five hundred prisoners. Personally, it 



550 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

brought me the honor, along with General Russell, of 
being mentioned in the order of the day of the army, 
wherein we received the thanks of the general com- 
manding, and an expression of the thanks of the Presi- 
dent. 

The greater part of the enemy's forces had retired 
into a wood, which it abandoned during the night. 
The next day there was no opposition to our march, 
and towards noon the whole army was reunited on the 
plain of Brandy Station. The pursuit began immedi- 
ately in order of battle. The country was admirably 
fitted for it. It is almost the only part of Virginia 
where the open land extends to any distance without 
obstacles. So that this grand military deployment 
offered one of the finest spectacles which could be 
imagined. Let one picture to himself two army corps 
marching on the centre, in line of battle, in mass, the 
artillery in the intervals and on the roads, the flanks 
covered by two divisions in column, the skirmishers in 
advance, the cavalry on the two wings ; the reserves 
covering the wagons in the rear ; and all this mass of 
humanity in perfect order, rising or falling gradually 
according to the undulations of the plain, with the noise 
of the cannon, which did not cease throwing projectiles 
on the rearguard of the Confederates in retreat. Such 
was the moving picture which was given us to enjoy 
during that whole afternoon. 

The enemy persistently refused the battle we con- 
tinued to offer him. He only halted after having passed 
the Rapidan. Our respective positions were thus the 
same that they had been a month before. 

The rebels had reckoned that we would halt on the 
line of the Rappahannock. In that persuasion, they 
had begun to build their winter quarters, without imag- 
ining that they might be at work for our benefit. Such 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 55 I 

was, however, the fact. We found brick and lumber in 
abundance, and even barracks almost finished, in the 
camps so hurriedly abandoned by them. This was so 
much valuable material for us, of which we immediately 
made good use. 

My brigade now encamped on the land of Mr. John 
Minor Botts, a Virginian, who had played a marked role 
in the old Whig party. He had adroitly manoeuvred 
his bark in the midst of the political storms which im- 
mediately preceded the tardy secession of his State. 
Since then, he had made an opposition to the Richmond 
government, temperate in reality, but sufficiently noisy 
in manner to be able to take advantage of it with us, as 
an evidence of Union sentiments. 

This able man had found means to feed at both racks. 
As soon as he saw us on his vast property, of which 
a part, it was said, was only a deposit left in his hands, 
by means of pretended sales, by rebels serving in the 
armies of the Confederacy, his first care was, natu- 
rally, to make as much as possible out of the circum- 
stances. He immediately sought General Meade. He 
told him, in moving terms, of the persecutions to which 
he had been subjected on the part of the Confederates, 
and the devastations his property had had to suffer. 
On these grounds he demanded the protection of the 
general commanding, and finished by asking in regard 
to an indemnity for the losses caused by our troops. 
General Meade willingly acceded to his requests, and, 
as my headquarters were the nearest to the house, I 
received orders to call on Mr. Botts, and agree with 
him as to what could be done. 

To my great surprise, I found a house surrounded by 
grounds in good order, and where no mark of the war 
was apparent, except in the reduction of the household 
service. The white fences were intact. Inside of them 



552 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the sheep grazed, the turkeys gobbled, the chickens 
clucked, the geese ate the grass, and the plump ducks 
slept with their b-ills under their wings. This was a 
rural sight which we had long before lost the habit of 
seeing in Virginia, My aids were not less surprised 
than myself, a;nd it appeared to us that, however great 
a victim the honorable Mr. Botts had been, he had 
nevertheless succeeded in saving some valuable remains 
from the shipwreck. A stairway of several steps led 
us to a piazza, covered by the projection of a Greek 
front, supported by high columns. The door was 
opened to us, and we passed into the house. 

The parlor where we were received was furnished 
without taste, but solidly comfortable, and where noth- 
ing was wanting. On the wall a few of the pretentious 
daubs which the want of artistic intelligence of the 
South accepts as pictures were growing yellow. In 
fine, everything appeared to be in its usual condition, 
and nothing indicated that the cheap carpets had been 
soiled by the boots of the soldiery. The master of the 
house soon made his appearance, with the air that 
Marius must have borne when confronted by the le- 
gionary who was ordered to put him to death ; but 
when I had made him acquainted with the object of my 
visit, modifying his expression, he took the initiative, 
and began his oration. 

As I had not come there for flowers of rhetoric, but 
on the matter of trees cut down and fences burned, I 
hastened to give a more practical turn to the conversa- 
tion. We had not the less to listen to the reading of a 
letter destined for the RicJimoud Exaviijier, and in 
which Mr. Botts complained bitterly of the excesses 
committed by the Confederate army to his prejudice. 
He inveighed particularly in the letter against General 
Stuart, who, little susceptible to the charms of elo- 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 553 

quence, had, it appeared, caused the arrest of the 
orator, in order to rid himself of his complaints, which 
were either too long or too strong. But where Mr. 
Botts lacked cunning was in the communication to me 
of the reclamation for damages and injuries addressed 
to the rebel government. It appeared to me that to 
hold out one hand to Richmond and the other to Wash- 
ington might be adroit ; but to let me know of it was, 
at least, useless, especially when certain damages, 
which I knew had been the work of the enemy, were 
unjustly laid to the charge of our troops. 

The conclusion was : firstly, we were to furnish a 
detail of a hundred men, with wagons, to put up the 
fences, protected by which the flocks of Mr. Botts 
could graze ; that afterwards a special commission was 
appointed to assess the damage and present a report 
on the question of indemnity. As I left the army a 
few days later, I am ignorant of what happened. 

In the month of September preceding, a question had 
been raised in reference to my position in the army, by 
a colonel aspiring to take my place. The question was 
whether the regulations authorized my retention on the 
rolls after the transfer of the men of the Fifty-fifth to 
the Fortieth, and the discharge of the Thirty-eighth, 
regiments, which I had successively commanded. Al- 
though the question had been decided in my favor, 
explicitly at army headquarters, and implicitly at the 
War Department, which had not given heed to the 
demand, I believed that I had done enough to get out 
of a contested position, by a promotion to the grade of 
brigadier-general, which had been asked for me five 
times within a year, by all my superiors. Conse- 
quently, on the 13th of November, the campaign being 
finished, and the army getting ready to go into winter 
quarters, I wrote to the adjutant-general to that effect. 



554 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The President had decided at that time to put off all 
promotions until after the assembling of Congress. It 
followed that my order of muster out as colonel pre- 
ceded by several weeks my nomination as brigadier- 
general. This interval, lengthened by the habitual 
delays of confirmation by the Senate, gave me the privi- 
lege of passing in New York and Washington a winter 
much more agreeable than it would have been under a 
tent. 

I will add here that, a few days after my departure, 
the army crossed the Rapidan, in accordance with a 
well conceived plan of General Meade, to envelop 
Ewell's corps, separately encamped, several miles away 
from Hill's. The undertaking was resultless, on ac- 
count of several mishaps, notably the mistakes of Gen- 
eral French, who, on the first day, delayed the march 
of the army considerably by his slowness in reaching the 
point assigned to him, and, on the second day, wan- 
dered so far from the road that he brought up against 
the enemy's line, instead of making connection with 
the Second Corps, as he had been ordered to do. This 
untoward event cost us seven hundred men in the 
Third Corps, amongst whom was Colonel Tripp, of the 
sharpshooters, who was killed in the engagement. 
The two corps of the enemy, whom we should have 
surprised, and fought separately, united immediately, 
and fortified so strongly and so thoroughly that on the 
third day the attack was recognized as too hazardous 
to be attempted. 

An instance of moving significance took place there. 
On the morning of the 20th, Warren was to attack the 
rebel right with the Second Corps, reenforced by two 
divisions of the Third. When, at daylight, the men, 
formed in line of battle, saw in front of them the 
marshy borders of Mine Run, the tangled abatis of 



THE LATTER PART OF 1 863. 555 

fallen trees, and the intrenchments, in front of which 
the enemy's artillery crossed its fire, knowing that the 
impossible was asked from them, they thought of 
Fredericksburg, and, without excitement or murmurs, 
each one wrote his name, his age, and his place of 
birth on a little square of paper, which he pinned on 
his breast. 

There is nothing more affecting in its heroic sim- 
plicity than this silent and resigned protest of soldiers 
ordered to death uselessly, who know it, and who yet, 
ready to immolate themselves to duty, confine their 
protest to pencilling beforehand their modest epitaphs. 

Happily, General Warren did not allow the sacri- 
fice to be made. Despising the disparaging criticisms 
to which he was exposing himself, he took it upon him- 
self to suspend the assault, and sent one of his aids to 
explain the reasons to the general commanding. The 
latter immediately countermanded the orders under 
which Sedgwick was to attack the left and Birney the 
centre of the enemy's positions. The opportunity was 
lost ; the advanced season did not allow the undertaking 
of any more new operations. The army recrossed the 
Rapidan, to take up again, and this time permanently, 
its Culpeper winter quarters. 

This period of inaction was only broken by several 
cavalry movements, the most important of which, 
towards the end of February, was an attempt to deliver 
those of our prisoners whom the barbarism of the rebel 
government had abandoned to all the tortures of cold 
and hunger, on an island in the James, in front of Rich- 
mond. General Kilpatrick, who commanded the expe- 
dition, penetrated to the second line of the defences of 
the rebel capital, but could go no further. A part of 
the force, led by Colonel Dahlgren, had been led astray 
far from its road by the treason of a guide, and be- 



556 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

trayed into an ambuscade, where a large number were 
killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. The guide was 
hanged to a tree, with a stout rope ; but the death of 
that wretch did not restore to life the young colonel, 
whose body lay among the dead. As to the prisoners, 
they were sent far distant to the south, where they 
were to perish by thousands, victims to unheard-of 
barbarities, of which I will give an account elsewhere. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

I^.YSSES S. GRANT, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. 

Condition of the rebellion at the beginning of 1864 — General Grant in 
the West — The capture of Vicksburg — Capitulation of Port Hud- 
son — Victory of Missionary Ridge — Grant appointed lieutenant- 
general — His portrait — His stay at Washington — Reorganization 
of the Army of the Potomac — Ofificial statement of the land forces 
of the Lfnited States — How I came to be appointed to the com- 
mand of the garrison and defences of New York. 

The year 1864 was recognized everywhere as the one 
which must decide the result of the war. In the 
North, as in the South, all agreed on this point. 

During three years the rebellion had not ceased to 
gradually fall back further and further from the accom- 
plishment of its designs. In the West it had been 
driven out of the central States, and, in consequence of 
defeat after defeat, having lost the line of the Missis- 
sippi, it had been cut in two so completely that for the 
use of the government at Richmond the States and 
Territories beyond the river were afterward as though 
they did not exist. In the East, where it had concen- 
trated its best forces, and where its best generals had 
not found their equals in ability amongst their oppo- 
nents, even its successes had been but negative, more 
onerous on them than our reverses had been on us. 
In fact, the Army of the Potomac had been for the 
Confederates the stone of Sisyphus. Twice had they 
rolled it back, once from the borders of the James to 
those of the Antietam, and again from the banks of 
the Rappahannock to the heights of Gettysburg, only 

557 



558 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

to be twice overwhelmed. The third time their force 
had failed them half-way, near Centreville ; and now 
they were worn out with holding their enemy on the 
Rapidan, whence he was always threatening to spring 
upon their capital. 

How long could their resistance endure .■* A year at 
the most. For these reasons : — « 

The South was at the end of its resources, and it 
was not in the power of a few speculators interested in 
English blockade-runners to renew them. Supported 
by her negroes, she had made war, and could yet do so, 
without money or credit ; but not without armies. She 
had still two armies remaining, who were all that the 
levy en masse could furnish. Behind them there was no 
more population to recruit from or renew them. Already, 
to fill up its ranks, the revolutionary government of 
Richmond had, according to the strong expression of 
Grant, " robbed the cradle and the grave." It had 
forced into the ranks even old men and children. This 
might sufBce for still another campaign ; but after- 
wards } These gone, — and men are quickly used up, 
— all that was possible was done. The rebellion, then, 
had only a last hand to play. 

In order that they might try one more chance, they 
must maintain the war until after the presidential 
election, which took place in November ; for the mili- 
tary campaign of the rebels in arms in the South had to 
correspond with the electoral campaign of their North- 
ern allies. There was entire cooperation, united action, 
between the two wings. So that, if the first gained any 
advantage in the field, the second would magnify the 
account, using every means to that effect, which the 
usual agitation customary in times of general election 
would enable them to do to advantage. By uniting 
certain selfish interests, and rallying those whose ambi- 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



559 



tion had been disappointed, by exciting personal discon- 
tent, they could have great effect upon the people by 
giving rise to a feeling of weariness of the war, aversion 
to new sacrifices, and lead them to a bartering away of 
principles by the lure of so-called compromises. If, by 
such operations as these, cunningly carried on, they 
could succeed in getting accepted, as Democratic can- 
didate for the Presidency, a man imbued with their 
views, all the resources of the opposition would come 
into their hands, and the election might assure the 
triumph of their ideas. 

This triumph would have been either the supremacy 
of the South in a new union, reconstituted to their 
profit, or a distinct confederation, composed at least of 
the cotton States, if the North refused to release the 
Central States. In either case, it brought ruin to the 
Republic, humiliation to democratic ideas, the putting 
back of civilization, and the destruction of liberty. 

In the North very different views prevailed. During 
three years the blood of her citizens had flowed in 
streams on the fields of battle, and the public credit 
was stretched to fill the yawning gulf of expenditure. 
It was time to make a finish, not by a shameful and 
useless compromise, but by a final and unconditional 
triumph. To accomplish this it was necessary, as much 
as possible, to reform abuses, repair errors, and correct 
the faults which had too long prolonged the war. The 
armies must be strengthened and restored to life by 
freeing them from the enervating influence of the 
creatures of intrigue and politics, and made more 
effective by giving them only capable and meritorious 
generals to command them. Above all, a man must be 
called to the supreme command of all the land forces, 
in position to support his authority by the greatness of 
his services and the brilliancy of his success, and capa- 



560 FOUR YEARS \VH11 THE l** )'R)MAC ARMY. 

ble of directing the operations of the different armies 
with a unity which had heretofore been wanting. 

One man only united all these conditions : General 
U. S. Grant. During the course of two years his 
name had continually grown greater in renown by the 
continued successes of the Western armies. The bat- 
tles he had fought had had a character of vigor and 
great tenacity ; the victories he had won had always 
been fruitful in great results. He had conceived extraor- 
dinar)' enterprises, and executed wonderful works. 
In this respect, the history of Grant's campaigns on 
the Mississippi will remain as the most curious illustra- 
tion of the American character and American genius 
applied to the art of war. What we did in the East 
under his command did not afford anything new or 
particularly different from what is done in the wars of 
the old world. 

In the month of July, 1863, the taking of Vicksburg 
put the seal to his renown. \'icksburg was a position 
which nature and art had made so strong that it was 
generally regarded as impregnable, and such w^as its 
importance that Jefferson Dans himself had publicly 
announced that it should be held at all hazards, if he 
had to employ all the forces and all the resources of 
the Confederacy. As the place was inapproachable 
from the front, other combinations than a direct attack 
were necessar)- to reduce it. Sherman was sent at 
first to take it in reverse, by way of the Yazoo River, and 
he failed. Grant undertook then to cut a canal, which 
should connect two bends of the Mississippi, in order to 
send through them the gunboats out of reach of the 
enemy's guns. He had to give up the attempt. 

His plan was to lead his army by the right bank of 
the river, some sixty miles below the citadel of the 
South, cross the river near Bruinsburg, plant himself 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 56 1 

entirely in the enemy's country, and, following up the 
left bank, to attack the place by its only vulnerable 
side. It was very fine and very bold in conception. 
It was still finer and still bolder in execution. 

Not having been able to make his canal project suc- 
cessful, Grant resolved to send his gunboats down the 
river, past the Vicksburg batteries. Admiral Porter 
was a man well fitted to conduct this bold enterprise. 
He succeeded in a dark night, without any loss except 
that of one steamer, and injuries, more or less serious, 
to a few of the others. Now Grant could carry out his 
plans. 

At Port Gibson, where he crossed the river with his 
army, he met the enemy and whipped him. At Grand 
Gulf he forced him to retire, driving him under the fire 
of his gunboats, and then pursued him to the rear of 
Vicksburg. On the 12th of May he obtained another 
victory, at Raymond ; on the 14th, General Johnston is 
beaten, and the city of Jackson, capital of the State of 
Mississippi, falls into Grant's hands, with twenty guns. 
General Pemberton is beaten in his turn, on the i6th, 
at Baker's Creek, where he loses four thousand men 
and twenty-nine guns. On the next day, the 17th, at 
the passage of Big Black River, he sustains a new loss, 
of twenty-six hundred men and seventeen pieces of 
artillery. On the i8th he retires to Vicksburg, which 
is then immediately invested. Six weeks later, in spite 
of the vain efforts of Johnston to relieve him, Pember- 
ton, short of provisions and ammunition, was himself 
forced to surrender to the conqueror, and to deliver up 
to him, with the place, nearly thirty-two thousand 
prisoners, two hundred and thirty-four pieces of artil- 
lery, and seventy thousand muskets. As a necessary 
consequence of this triumph of Grant's, Port Hudson 
surrendered four days later, adding seven thousand men 



562 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

and fifty pieces of artillery to the material losses of the 
enemy, who had besides, in the same week, left thirty 
thousand men on the field of battle at Gettysburg. 

This series of operations carried on with as much 
perseverance as energy ; these obstacles overcome on 
all sides ; these operations carried on by every means ; 
these battles following battles ; these victories leading 
to victories ; and this continuance of efforts, never sat- 
isfied while anything remains to be done : all this is 
General Grant. 

In the month of October, having replaced General 
Rosecrans at Chattanooga, Tennessee, he found himself 
in front of General Bragg, whose forces were intrenched 
in a formidable position on Missionary Ridge. As 
soon as his army had been sufficiently reenforced by 
the arrival of Sherman, whom he had called from Vicks- 
burg, and of Hooker, who brought him the Eleventh 
and Twelfth Corps detached from the Army of the Po- 
tomac, he marched out to the attack of this new oppo- 
nent on the heights, where the latter believed he was 
impregnable. Not only did he dislodge him, but he 
threw him back in full rout to Dalton, in Georgia, in- 
flicting upon him a disastrous loss of eighteen thousand 
men and a large number of guns. 

After this new victory, gained on November 25, 
Grant meditated already the capture of Atlanta, and 
that brilliant campaign through the whole of Georgia, 
which was, at a later date, a subject of astonishment 
and admiration in the old as well as in the new world. 
But he had to leave to General Sherman the execution 
of that grand conception, for he had been called to 
Washington, to a still more arduous task. 

The grade of lieutenant-general did not exist in the 
American army. It had been conferred, only excep- 
tionally and by brevet, on General Scott, the conqueror 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 563 

of Mexico. On March 2, 1864, Congress reestablished 
it in favor of General Grant, and the President added to 
it that of commander-in-chief of all the armies of the 
United States. 

It was at the same time recompensing him for great 
services rendered and laying him under obligations to 
render still greater. General Grant accepted the posi- 
tion. The people experienced a profound joy and an 
absolute confidence. They understood that the direc- 
tion of the war, intrusted to such hands, was the de- 
cree of death, in a short time, to the rebellion. 

I had the opportunity, for the first time, to meet 
General Grant in Washington, on this occasion. All 
his pictures, spread throughout the world by photog- 
raphy and engraving, resemble him. He is a man 
rather below than above medium height. His bearing 
is simple ; his deportment reserved as are his manners. 
His sobriety of language has passed into a proverb. 
Never has man better followed the maxim that, if 
"speech is of silver, silence is golden." As in all 
popular heroes, people have endeavored to find some- 
thing extraordinary in his features. But what is really 
seen there is an expression of tranquil firmness, some- 
thing like the consciousness of force in repose. His 
features are regular ; his forehead broad. In his clear 
and intelligent eyes the glance betrays generally a cold 
clearness. 

It follows, as a matter of course, that, on his arrival 
in Washington, he was the lion of the day, the man 
whom every one wished to see, whose hand every one 
wished to grasp. The Americans are terribly enthusi- 
astic towards whoever is the object of their enthusiasm. 
They cause him to undergo moral and physical trials 
which only a constitution robust both in body and mind 
can endure. There were nothing but deputations — 



564 FOUR YEARS Willi THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sometimes they deputed themselves — with the accom- 
paniment of forced harangues ; individual presentations 
and hand-shaking ; serenades by night ; receptions by 
day, etc. General Grant no longer belonged to him- 
self ; they left him neither respite nor repose. So he 
had no sooner arrived at Washington than he was in 
haste to depart. The great task which had been in- 
trusted to him was nearer his heart than all the ova- 
tions. He was in haste to put all his time to profit in 
preparing to accomplish it. 

The war was now concentrated on two points where 
the last two armies of the rebellion were lying. In the 
West, that of Johnston, fortified at Dalton, on the bor- 
ders of Georgia ; in the East, that of Lee, intrenched in 
Virginia, behind the line of the Rapidan. Both had 
been reenforced by all the contingents it had been pos- 
sible to send to them. The Confederacy had drained 
its last drop of blood to swell its last stake. Against 
Johnston, Grant pitted Sherman, at the head of all the 
forces available between the Alleghaniesand the Missis- 
sippi. He established his own headquarters with the 
Army of the Potomac, left still under the command of 
General Meade. He knew that it was that army which 
must give the finishing stroke to the rebellion, and he 
neglected nothing to assure to it all the chances possL 
ble in this duel to the death. The War Department, 
for its part, put everything in motion to fully cooperate 
to the same end. 

The five corps of the Army of the Potomac were con- 
solidated into three, under the command of the three 
generals recommended more than all the others by 
their services, their experience, and their capacity : 
Hancock, Warren, and Sedgwick. 

Hancock was placed at the head of the Second Corps, 
composed of four divisions : those of Barlow and Gibbon, 



ULYSSES S. GRANT.- 565 

belonging to the old organization, and those of Birney 
and Mott, taken from the Third Corps, which ceased to 
exist as an organization. 

Warren continued to command the Fifth Corps, in 
which was incorporated what remained of the First 
Corps ; the whole formed in four divisions, commanded 
by Generals Griffin, Robinson, Crawford, and Wads- 
worth. 

The command of Sedgwick, composed, as heretofore, 
of the Sixth Corps, comprised in addition the old divis- 
ion brought to the Third Corps by French. It con- 
sisted of three divisions, commanded by Wright, Getty, 
and Prince. 

Finally, the Ninth Corps, commanded by Burnside, 
was recalled from Tennessee, to cooperate with the 
Army of the Potomac, in which it was soon to be incor- 
porated. It had three divisions, under the orders of 
Generals Potter, Wilcox, and Crittenden, to which was 
added a fourth, composed entirely of colored troops, and 
commanded by General Ferrero. 

These four army corps, together with the cavalry 
corps (henceforth under the command of General 
Sheridan, brought from the West to take that important 
position), formed an effective force of about one hun- 
dred and forty thousand men. It was much larger 
than Lee could bring against us, but the latter had the 
advantage of the defensive, to which the nature of the 
countrv- in Virginia offers inexhaustible resources. 

Besides the Army of the Potomac, General Grant 
had for his operations against Richmond two other 
auxiliary armies, which were to act in cooperation with 
it. One, about thirty thousand strong, was assembled 
at Fortress :\ronroe, under the command of General 
Butler. It was to ascend the James, directly threaten 
Richmond, and, by establishing itself at City Point, in- 



566 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

tercept all the reenforcements that Lee could draw 
from the Carolinas. The other, commanded by General 
Sigel, and numbering about seventeen to eighteen 
thousand men, occupied Virginia, beyond the Blue 
Ridge. His mission was to protect the Shenandoah 
valley, threaten Lee's communications with the West, 
and stop all aid which might be sent him from that 
quarter. Banks, in Louisiana, and Steele, in Arkansas, 
received each his special instructions. In Tennessee, 
Sherman, who united under his command the three 
armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio, 
had had his plan drawn up for a long time. The cam- 
paign was to open in all quarters, by the simultaneous 
movement of the armies. 

As the truth of the statements as to the great pro- 
portions of the war has been called in question by the 
press in Europe, I will take from the report of the 
Secretary of War the official account of the forces 
which the United States had on foot on the ist of May, 
1864. 

The total number, including the troops of all arms, 
— but, of course, not including the militia, — amounted 
to nine hundred and seventy thousand seven hundred and 
ten men, distributed as follows : — 

Present under arms . . 662,345 

On detached service in the different departments . . 109,348 

In the army hospitals 41,266 

In the general hospitals, or at home wounded . . . 75,978 

Absent on leave, or prisoners of war 66,290 

Absent without leave ... 15,483 

Total . ... 970,710 

The six lumdred and sixty-t%vo thoicsand three hundird 
and forty-five men present under arms were distributed 
as follows : — 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 



567 



Department of Washington 4-' i''4 

Army of the Potomac j .j jg^ 

Department of Virginia and North Carolina .... 59,139 

" of the South j3 j^j. 

" Gulf (5j866 

" " Arkansas 2 ■5666 

" " Tennessee 74,074 

" Missouri i c j^q 

" " Northwest 5,295 

" " Kansas ^^7^8 

" " Cumberland 119,948 

" Ohio ". . . . 35,416 

" " North 5^546 

" " Western Virginia • . 30,782 

" " East 2,828 

" " Susquehanna 2,970 

" " Middle 5,627 

" " New Mexico 3-454 

" " Pacific 5,141 

Headquarters of the military division of the Mississippi . 476 

Total 662,345 

My name had been sent in to the Senate for promo- 
tion on January 5, but, the Senate being occupied with 
more important matters, I was not confirmed until 
April 8, too late to obtain an immediate command in 
the army. 

On May 2, I received my commission at New York, 
where I had gone to wait for it. A few days later, I 
met, on Broadway, an officer of my acquaintance, who 
accosted me, asking me if I had seen General Peck. — 
" He is in the city for twenty-four hours," he said to 
me, " and he would be very glad to shake hands with 
vou. I have just left him on the way to General Di.x's 
quarters, where he must be at this moment." 

The pleasant memories of the friendly relations which 
attached me to the general under whose orders I had 
served my first campaign made it at once a duty and a 
pleasure to call on him. I immediately made my way 
to headquarters, withon<- suspecting that destiny had 



568 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

anything to do with the sentiment which took me there. 
I found General Peck there. Our interview was most 
cordial. After the first greetings, our memories inevita- 
bly turned backward ; my old brigade commander had 
just expressed in the most generous terms his appre- 
ciation of my services in the Peninsula, when General 
Dix interrupted him. " Ah ! " said he, " here is the 
man you were looking after." 

The remark related to a subject of conversation dis- 
cussed before my arrival, and of which I was ignorant. 

" That is true," replied General Peck ; " and you 
could not find a better one." 

Then General Dix, turning towards me, said, " You 
have received your commission of brigadier-general .'' " 

" Four or five days ago." 

" And you are awaiting orders .-• " 

" Yes, general." 

" Ah, well ! You will not wait long." 

He struck the bell. The orderly appeared. 

"Ask Colonel Van Buren to step here." 

General Peck smiled, and I looked in vain for an 
explanation of the enigma, when the chief of staff 
entered the room. 

"Colonel," said General Dix, ^' will you please draw 
up an order assigning to General de Trobriand the 
command of the garrison and defences of New York. 
As soon as you have delivered it to him, he will enter 
on his duties, in order that General Stannard can report 
without delay at his new position." 

A quarter of an hour afterward. General Stannard 
turned over to me the command in which I succeeded 
him. He was in a hurry to join the army, and find 
new opportunity to distinguish himself, as he had done 
at Gettysburg, little thinking that he would soon return 
leavine: an arm before Petersburg. 



ULYSSES S. GRANT. 569 

The measure taken so hurriedly by General Dix was 
approved by the War Department, and I was retained 
at the First Division of the Department of the East. 

The command which was intrusted to me would have 
been, in time of peace, the most enviable of all to 
which I could have aspired. It was a very important 
position for an officer of my grade, for it embraced 
fourteen forts and batteries, armed with eighteen hun- 
dred pieces of artillery, and defended by three regi- 
ments of regulars, a regiment of militia, enrolled for 
garrison service, and several companies of artillery. 
The government accorded me in this a mark of its 
confidence, so much greater in that, born a Frenchman, 
I was an American by naturalization only. Notwith- 
standing, this kind of service would have been more 
suitable for some general necessarily kept away from 
the army by his wounds or by the shattered state of 
his health. As for me, who had never had a scratch, 
and whose health had never been more robust than 
since I had paid my tribute to the pestilential climate 
of the Peninsula, — it would have been a much more 
appropriate place for me to have been making the cam- 
paign than to be passing the days in my office, signing 
reports, or on a steam yacht, visiting the forts from the 
outer bay, at Sandy Hook, to the entrance of the sound, 
at Throgg's Neck. 

However, whether for good or for evil, it was not 
given to me to take part in the opening scenes of 
General Grant's campaign in Virginia. I will therefore 
limit my account of that campaign to a summary rela- 
tion of that series of battles and terrible conflicts which 
mark the march of the Army of the Potomac from the 
banks of the Rapidan to those of the Appomattox 
before Petersburg:. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 

Battle of the Wilderness — Volleys (J ojitrance in the thickets — The 
diverse fortunes — Death of General Wadsworth — Fight in the 
midst of the flames — Result — Battle of Spottsylvania — Death of 
General Sedgwick — Attack on the intrenchments — Success of the 
Second Corps — Twenty hours of conflict — Night movements — 
Continued battles — Engagement on the North Anna — Cavalry 
expedition — Sheridan under the walls of Richmond — Death of 
General Stuart — Battle of Cold Harbor — Account rendered of one 
month of campaign. 

On May 4, 1864, the Army of the Potomac crossed the 
Rapidan, without opposition, below the enemy's posi- 
tions, and, turning the Confederates' right, entered into 
that ahnost impracticable region known by the name of 
the Wilderness. Grant's design was to get in the rear of 
Lee, but the latter did not give him the time. He im- 
mediately left his intrenched positions, not to fall back 
on Richmond, but to fall directly on the army, which, 
in its march, presented its flank to him. Ewell's and 
Hill's corps advanced by two parallel roads, and at five 
o'clock in the morning struck the centre of the Fifth 
Corps (Warren). The attack suspended the movement, 
and the battle was commenced with great vigor on 
both sides. Ewell's advance guard was at first repulsed 
and driven back ; but, reenforcements soon reaching 
him, he retook the offensive, and the Fifth Corps, which 
was engaged alone, lost all the ground it had gained and 
more. Hancock, who had the advance, and who was 
already considerably beyond Chancellorsville, was hur- 
riedly recalled to form on Warren's left. Sedgwick, 

570 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 



571 



who brought up the rear, was already in position on the 
right. 

Some hours passed away in each party feeling of 
each other in this labyrinth of thick woods, where 
often one could see nothing until he touched it. This 
gave Hancock time to arrive and stop Hill's advance. 
The battle there was still violent and desperate. The 
first general who was killed was Alexander Hays, who 
had replaced me in the command of my old brigade. 
Durmg three or four hours the Second Corps fought 
furiously, without succeeding in forcing the enemy to 
fall back from the midst of the thicket, where a bayonet 
charge could not be made, nor artillery used. The 
night separated the combatants in the position where 
they had begun the fight. It was to be renewed in the 
morning. Only the battle was to take on still greater 
proportions, in consequence of the arrival of Burnside 
on one side and Longstreet on the other. 

Lee attacked first at daylight on the 6th, on Sedg- 
wick's right. The attack was repulsed without great 
trouble, and almost immediately, Warren and Hancock 
having advanced their front, the battle extended along 
the whole line. Bear in mind that it was in no respect 
like any other battle. The men fought, as it were, feel- 
ing their way. On that rough terrain, rocky, hilly, 
covered everywhere with a network of low vegetation 
and dwarf trees, no precision of movement was possible. 
The general direction of the two armies was well enough 
defined, but the dispositions in detail necessarily es- 
caped the control of the superior officers. The colonels 
even could rarely overlook at once all the companies of 
their regiments, and in the brigades it was difficult for 
the right to know what was going on at the left, and 
vice versa. They advanced through the woods with 
difficulty. The adversaries came upon each other 



572 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

twenty or thirty paces apart, — further than that, they 
could not see each other. — and on both sides they fired 
desperately until they saw no one in front of them. 
Were the lines broken, or were they mingled together .'* 
That could hardly be told. Wounded men of Birney's 
division were taken prisoners while going to the rear, 
by a regiment of the enemy, which had wandered astray. 
I have the fact from officers who came near meeting 
the same fate, and who could not tell me how the regi- 
ment had got into that position, or how it got out. 

One can understand that the battle was fought every- 
where with so much the more desperation that what 
was happening at one point was not known, and was 
consequently without influence, elsewhere. Those who 
had the best of it found a thousand hindrances to their 
pursuing their advantage ; and those who had the worst 
of it found a thousand facilities for escaping. 

Notwithstanding everything, when, at five o'clock in 
the morning, Hancock threw forward the two divisions 
of Mott and Birney, supported by Getty's division of 
the Sixth Corps and Wadsworth's division of the Fifth, 
the attack was pushed with so much vigor that Hill's 
corps, on which it fell, was broken and thrown back in 
disorder to near Parker's store, a distance of more than 
a mile and a half. Unhappily, Longstreet came up at 
this moment, and, in spite of every effort, the Second 
Corps could not get any further. Soon even, pressed 
more and more by superior forces, it lost ground, and 
ended by being forced back to its first position, leaving 
among the dead General Wadsworth, one of the bravest 
soldiers, one of the noblest citizens, and one of the best 
men whose loss the country has had to lament during 
this war. Not far from Wadsworth dying lay Long- 
street, severely wounded. 

On the centre and on the ri2:ht, the battle went on 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 



575 



without any great result on either side. The force of 
the fighting was not at that point, but more to the left, 
where it was soon to recommence with a new fury. 
Lee had himself taken command of Longstreet's corps, 
and, when he had rallied Hill's corps, he threw the two 
together against the improvised intrenchments of the 
Second Corps, along a crossroad called the Brock road. 
The assailants were stopped, at first, by a fierce fire, 
which did great damage in their ranks ; but seon a fire 
caught in the woods ; the wind carried the smoke and 
flames against the end of our line, which was soon en- 
veloped. The enemy took advantage of the accident to 
charge home at that point. Then they literally fought 
in the midst of the fire, the flames licking the legs of 
the combatants. The Confederates were successful in 
forcing the intrenchments, when the prompt arrival of a 
brigade commanded by General Carroll repulsed them 
with so much vigor that the attack was abandoned, 
after having cost the assailants terrible losses, as evi- 
denced by the number of dead and wounded left on the 
ground. 

The day ended as it had begun, by an attack by 
Ewell on the right of the Sixtb Corps. This time, it 
was more serious, and succeeded better than before. 
Two brigades were beaten, and the two generals com- 
manding them, Seymour and Shaler, were captured 
while bravely striving to rally their men. However, 
the evil was soon repaired, and the enemy was forced to 
fall back without having gained anything at that point, 
except a quantity of prisoners. 

This two-days battle left the victory undecided be- 
tween the two armies. Meade had succeeded in main- 
taining his position against the repeated attacks of the 
enemy. Lee had succeeded in inflicting on us a greater 
loss than his own. . On our side, in fact, it amounted to 



574 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

about eighteen thousand men, while, according to their 
reports, the Confederates' was scarcely more than half 
that number. Total loss, from twenty-eight to thirty 
thousand ; and this was but the commencement. 

The next day. May 7, Grant was ready to continue 
the battle ; but Lee had enough for the time being. 
He had retired behind his intrenchments, where it 
would have been a mistake to attack him. The first 
plan was then resumed, and, when night came on, the 
army was put in motion for Spottsylvania Court House. 
The enemy, who was on the alert, was soon aware of 
the movement. He immediately began his march by a 
road parallel to the one we were following. As the dis- 
tance he marched over was less for him than for us, he 
reached the goal 'first. So that at eight o'clock in the 
morning, when Robinson's division, which led the 
column, debouched from the woods upon the open fields 
near Spottsylvania, it found itself confronted by Long- 
.street's corps, and was thrown into disorder. . Its com- 
mander, struck in the knee by a ball, lost a leg in the 
fight. Soon Griffin's, Crawford's, and Cutler's divisions, 
coming hurriedly on the ground in succession, in their 
turn drove back the enemy to a height where he had 
just taken position. There they halted, to await the 
Second Corps, which was closely following the Fifth. 
Hancock having been retained by General Meade to 
cover the general movement, Sedgwick came up first, 
but several hours late. 

Whatever were the other military qualities of General 
Sedgwick, it could not be said that he was distinguished 
by the quickness of his coup a ail or the promptness of 
his decisions. So that he allowed the whole afternoon 
to pass away in partial demonstrations, rather feeling of 
the enemy than endeavoring to dislodge him. The lat- 
ter profited by the respite, to straighten his skilfully 



BATTLE AFTER BATfLE. 



575 



chosen position, so that on the 9th the two armies 
were found confronting each other. 

This day passed away in preparations and in move- 
ments to install the corps in the following order : on 
the left, Burnside ; in the centre, Sedgwick and War- 
ren ; on the right, Hancock. Except this, the opera- 
tions were limited to the fire of sharpshooters, which 
unfortunately lost to us General Sedgwick, killed while 
he personally overlooked the placing of a battery of sev- 
eral pieces in position. His death was much mourned in 
the Sixth Corps, where he was greatly beloved, and in 
the army, where he was esteemed as much for the noble- 
ness of his character, and for his patriotic devotion, as 
for his abilities as a soldier. 

On the loth the day began by an advance movement 
of Hancock. After having crossed a branch of the Po 
without difficulty, he continued his march, and had 
already struck the enemy's lines when two of his divis- 
ions were recalled to take part in an assault along War- 
ren's front. Shortly after, Barlow's division, left alone 
in front of much superior forces, was obliged to fall 
back, and ended by rejoining the other two, when there 
occurred one of those unhappy attacks which often 
during the war cost us so dearly and brought us so little. 

It was always the same story: — Formidable positions 
bristling with artillery, covered with intrenchments, 
protected by inextricable abatis, defended by a solid and 
numerous army. The result was what might have been 
foreseen. Twice the columns of attack of the Fifth and 
Second Corps were sprung forward through all the ob- 
stacles ; twice were they driven back, bruised, cut up, 
leaving, in the two attempts, from five to six thousand 
men dead or wounded, on the ground they had not been 
able to wrest from the enemy. Among the dead was 
General Rice, a fine and brave officer of the Fifth Corps. 



5/6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

At one point only, in front of the Sixth Corps, a bri- 
gade, commanded by General Upton, penetrated the 
intrenchments, and with the assistance of a second bri- 
gade, led by General Russell, captured a thousand pris- 
oners and a few guns. But the failure of the principal 
attack did not allow the advantage to be followed up, 
and the troops who had been so successful had to return 
to our lines when night came on. 

Seven days had passed since the Army of the Potomac 
had entered on the campaign by crossing the Rapidan ; 
seven days of continual and desperate fighting. This 
bloody week had not brought victory, and it had cost us 
29,410 men. 

The enemy's positional Spottsylvania had, it seemed, 
been chosen and made ready at the time of the Chan- 
cellorsville campaign, which explains the strength and 
importance of his intrenchments. However, some vul- 
nerable place must be found. Having failed at one 
point did not prove that we could not succeed at anoth- 
er. At all events, Grant resolved to make the attempt 
without delay. 

On the I ith, Hancock received orders to leave his po- 
sition on the right wing, during the night, to form in 
order of attack between Burnside and Wright, who had 
succeeded Sedgwick in the command of the Sixth Corps. 
In a dark night, and during a pouring rain, the move- 
ment was promptly executed, and, when the first glim- 
mer commenced to light up the gray mist spread through 
the atmosphere, the Second Corps was ready in the fol- 
lowing order : Birney's division, deployed in two lines 
and supported by Mott's division (these two divisions 
were the remains of the old Third Corps) ; then Bar- 
low's division, also in two lines, but by battalion, in 
mass ; finally, Gibbon's division, in reserve. 

At a given signal all moved silently forward. Where 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 



577 



they would find the enemy they did not know ; under 
what conditions they were about to attack him they 
knew no better. But they marched forward noiselessly, 
with hurried step, and hoping for a surprise. Suddenly 
they come upon the rebel pickets ; they pass over them 
without firing a shot. The intrenchments are before 
them, forming a salient angle, and as though asleep in 
the haze. Then, by a spontaneous burst, in spite of all 
the orders of the officers for silence, they break into a 
resounding hurrah, and rush forward on the run. In a 
moment they are on the enemy's lines, and, in spite of 
a sharp fire, they leap over them in a few bounds and 
fall on the defendants with the bayonet. The fight 
breast to breast was fierce but of short duration. The 
Confederates were as if inclosed between the traverses 
in the interior of their intrenchments. Under that 
avalanche of steel which rolled upon their heads, the 
bravest could not fight long. They had to die or sur- 
render. They surrendered. Johnson's whole division 
of Ewell's corps remained in our hands, with twenty or 
thirty pieces of artillery, and as many flags. General 
Johnson himself and General Stewart were among the 
prisoners. 

The Second Corps, animated by its success, advanced 
promptly within the intrenchments carried from the 
enemy, easily driving back through the woods the force it 
found before it, until it struck a second line of intrench- 
ments, before which it was compelled to halt, and soon 
to fall back, under the increasing pressure of the forces 
pushed rapidly by the enemy to this point. The angle 
then became the theatre and object of a furious strife. 

The fight had become general along the whole line, 
but, in spite of the attacks of Warren on one side and 
Burnside on the other, Lee, protected by his intrench- 
ments, was able to continue to strip one part of his 



578 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

front, to mass the reenforcements on the principal 
point, and to reestablish his lost position at all hazards. 
Meade understood this, and on his side hastened to 
strongly sustain the Second Corps. Wright arrived 
first to Hancock's aid, followed by two of Warren's 
divisions. 

The battle continued during the whole day, on the 
one side to retake and on the other to hold this corner 
of the works contested with unparalleled desperation. 
Five times the Confederates returned to the charge. 
One assault repulsed, they rallied at a short distance, 
reformed with new troops, and again rushed on the 
double intrenchments, where our men received the 
shock with an unshakable firmness. 

The narrow crest was alight with the flash of the 
guns, through which the bayonets were crossed, fierce 
cries were heard, and where the opposing flags nearly 
touched each other ; and when the human wave was 
broken against the immovable obstacle, it retired, leav- 
ing behind it a heap of bloody corpses clothed in gray. 
Night came on and the fight still continued. It lasted 
nearly twenty hours, at the end of which the enemy, 
finally discouraged as much as exhausted, abandoned 
the strife, and retired behind a second line of defence, 
connected with what remained of the first. 

General Grant was then able to appreciate how much 
more arduous the war was in Virginia than anywhere 
else, and how much greater efforts and greater sacrifices 
were necessary to win victory in front of his new adver- 
saries than before those over whom he had triumphed 
in the West. But, if the labors and dangers of the task 
were of a nature to astonish him, his was not a charac- 
ter to be turned from his purpose. Far from yielding, 
he became more firm against the obstacles, and, with 
that obstinate perseverance that nothing could turn 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 



579 



from his goal, during seven days still he sought an op- 
portunity to force the enemy out of his intrenchments. 
At the same time, to fill up in part a loss of nearly forty 
thousand men, the result of eight days' fightino", he 
asked for reenforcements, which were sent to him from 
Washington. 

In order to show how little the week following the 
seven days of privations, trials, and battles was a week 
of repose for the troops, I borrow the following passages 
from the notes of Mr. Swinton, at that time correspond- 
ent of the New York Times in the Army of the Poto- 
mac : — 

"May 13. — The battle of the 12th having ended by 
the retreat of Lee behind an interior line, it was re- 
solved to endeavor to turn his right. In this design, 
during the night of the 13th, the Fifth Corps received 
orders to march from the extreme right to the extreme 
left, in order to attack, in concert with Burnside's corps, 
on the 14th, at four o'clock in the morning. The bad 
weather had broken up the roads considerably, and, as 
the night was of an Egyptian darkness, the march was 
made only with the greatest difficulty. The river Ny 
had to be crossed at a ford. On the other side of the 
river there was no road. They were obliged to cross 
some fields and a piece of woods where a road was to 
be cut with the axe. When they were half-way to 
their destination, so heavy a fog arose that even the 
numerous fires which had been lighted to guide them 
ceased to be visible. The men, exhausted by fatigue, 
wet through in fording the river, and tramping in the 
mud up to their knees in the darkness, fell asleep all 
along the road. In addition, the place where the troops 
were to take position was completely unknown, and, 
when light appeared and the head of the column arrived 
on the left of Burnside's corps, near the Fredericksburg 



580 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

turnpike, the only troops present to execute the pro- 
jected attack were twelve hundred worn-out men of 
Griffin's division. It was seven o'clock before General 
Cutler was able to get together about thirteen hundred 
men. 

" May 14. — The fire of the skirmishers began at six 
o'clock in the morning. In the southeast was a high 
hill which completely commanded Warren's position. 
As this appeared to be occupied only by a few cavalry, 
a small force of regulars was sent to get possession of 
it. The horsemen retired, and, while our regulars in- 
trenched, Upton's brigade of the Sixth Corps (which 
had followed the Fifth) came to relieve them. They 
had not completely established themselves before a 
considerable body of the enemy's infantry, from the 
village of Spottsylvania, advanced against them. The 
brigade was swept away, and General Meade, who had 
come to visit the ground, was near being captured. 
The Sixth Corps then coming up, in the afternoon this 
important position was retaken and reoccupied, for it is 
certain that the enemy did not abandon it, 

" May 15 and 16. — The removal of the Fifth and the 
Sixth Corps for this movement left the Second on the 
extreme right of the line. But on the 15th Hancock 
had to send Barlow's and Gibbon's divisions on the 
Fredericksburg road, so that Birney was left to cover 
Burnside's right, at the end of the general line. As to 
the other corps, the day passed away in putting every- 
thing in order, and gathering together the stragglers, 
opening the roads and in incessant skirmishing. A new 
base was established at Acquia Creek, where the 
wounded and the sick were sent, and from which provi- 
sions and forage, of which the army was in need, were 
brought. 

"May 17. — Hancock received orders to lead his com- 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 58 1 

mand out of the works which he carried on the 12th, 
and attack the enemy to-morrow, at daylight, in the in- 
trenchments which he occupies in front of that position. 
The Sixth Corps is to form on Hancock's right, and 
assault the enemy's line at the same time. The Ninth 
Corps is to take part in the attack. Marching by night 
is yet very difficult. 

"May 18. — The troops were in position before day- 
light. It was hoped to surprise the enemy sleeping ; 
but he had his eyes open, and was protected by acres 
of impenetrable abatis. At four o'clock Gibbon's and 
Barlow's divisions moved to the attack in line of bri- 
gades. The artillery was posted and intrenched in the 
first line, and fired over the troops during the en- 
gagement. Our troops were received by a fire of both 
artillery and musketry, which swept the approaches and 
made great havoc in their ranks. Nevertheless, they 
continued to advance to the edge of the abatis, which, in 
connection with a deadly fire, stopped further progress. 
Many brilliant efforts were made to penetrate the 
enemy's lines, but without success. At ten o'clock in 
the morning, the attack showing no chance of succeed- 
ing. General Meade suspended the movement." 

After so many attempts, as costly as useless, it was 
necessary to do what might easily have been done in 
the first place : dislodge Lee from his position without 
direct attack, but simply by a march by the flank. On 
the 19th the movement was got ready, when the rebels 
suddenly took the offensive, to cut our communications 
with Fredericksburg. Their column was composed of 
Jackson's old soldiers, now commanded by Ewell, and 
they found before them only the regiments of heavy 
artillery, serving as infantry, which General Tyler was 
bringing from Washington. These brave men had 
never been under fire, but, if they were as inexperienced 



582 FOl^^ YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

as recruits, they had the bravery of veterans. They 
marched to meet the enemy with admirable bearing, 
and repulsed him completely, after a very serious con- 
flict, in which their losses were so much the greater 
that they exposed , themselves the more with a heroic 
awkwardness. In that engagement they gained in- 
stantly their footing in the Army of the Potomac, 
and the congratulations of the general command- 
ing, who was pleased to bear witness to their good 
conduct by an order of the day issued especially on 
their account. 

Delayed by this incident for twenty-four hours, the 
movement of the army did not begin until May 20. It 
was successfully made to the North Anna River, the 
passage of which was forced by Hancock, by dislodging 
the enemy from some works which defended it, while 
Warren, established without opposition on the south 
bank, some miles above, brilliantly repulsed the forces of 
the enemy sent against him. But it was then discovered 
that Lee had got the start of us, and taken a strong 
position between the Second and the Fifth Corps. The 
rough experience of Spottsylvania had somewhat cooled 
General Grant in regard to direct attacks against forti- 
fied positions. Without incurring new sacrifices, he 
withdrew to the north bank the three corps which had 
crossed to the other side. This operation was com- 
pleted without the enemy's knowledge, on the night of 
May 26, and the army, inclining towards the south- 
east, took its march towards the Pamunkey. On the 
evening of the 27th it had passed the river near Hanover- 
town, where Sheridan, with his cavalry, rejoined it. 

On May 9, Sheridan, whose services could not be 
made useful in the country where the army was then 
operating, had been sent, with three divisions of cavalry, 
to cut Lee's communications, and destroy the railroads, 



BAITLE AFTER BATTLE, 583 

burn the bridges, and threaten the rebel capital itself. 
He had accomplished all this to the letter, with as much 
vigor as ability. He had first occupied the station of 
Beaver Dam, on the North Anna. There he had inter- 
cepted several rebel convoys, one of which included four 
hundred prisoners on the road to Richmond, whom he 
freed. He had burnt the cars, destroyed the locomotives, 
consigned to the flames a million and a half of rations, and 
destroyed ten miles of the railroad. As he had burned 
the bridge of Beaver Dam, on the North Anna, he did 
the same for that of Ground Squirrel, on the South 
Anna. At Ashland Station he burned the depot, a 
large amount of supplies stored there, six miles of rail- 
road, two bridges, several public buildings, a locomotive, 
and three trains. During all these operations, the ene- 
my's cavalry had not ceased to harass him; but he had 
everywhere driven it off with loss, without interrupting 
his work of destruction. Finally, a few miles from 
Richmond, near the Yellow Tavern, Stuart having col- 
lected his whole force to bar his passage, Sheridan did 
not hesitate to attack him. The fight was strongly con- 
tested on both sides ; but the Confederates were beaten, 
and Stuart lost his life. His death was an irreparable loss 
to the Confederate government, which had never had a 
cavalry general equal to him, and never found one to 
replace him. 

As soon as he was free of his adversary, Sheridan 
marched straight on the fortifications of Richmond. 

General Custer, charging at the head of his brigade, 
penetrated the first line, capturing there a section of 
artillery and a hundred prisoners. The second line be- 
ing too strong to carry, Sheridan retired on the Chick- 
ahominy, where he burned the railroad bridge. After 
taking a little rest at Haxall's Landing, and having re- 
ceived from General Butler the provisions he required. 



584 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

he took the road to meet the Army of the Potomac, 
which he successfully joined near the Pamunkey. 

Lee had no trouble in getting ahead of us, and once 
more he presented himself to bar the road to Richmond, 
on the banks of the Chickahominy. Reconnoissances 
sent out to look for him found him, as usual, solidly 
established in an intrenched position, from which we 
could not undertake to dislodge him without resolving 
beforehand to submit to dreadful sacrifices. On the 
other hand, it was impossible to risk the passage of the 
river without having first driven the enemy back on 
Richmond, and, besides, his proximity to that city 
prevented any new attempt to interpose by a turning 
movement between the Confederate capital and the 
army defending it. The dangerous mistakes of Freder- 
icksburg and Spottsylvania were again resorted to, and 
General Meade ordered a first attack. 

The troops designated were the Sixth Corps, and a 
reenforcement of sixteen thousand men which had come 
from Butler's army, under the command of General W. 
F. Smith, On the ist of June, at four o'clock in the 
morning, the two corps charged with great spirit, 
crossed a wide open ground under a deadly fire, and, at 
a cost of two thousand men, forced the enemy's line on 
the edge of a thick wood. But when they tried to 
penetrate further they struck a second line, much 
stronger, before which they had to halt. The two 
corps kept the position they had carried, and where 
they had made six hundred prisoners. The best result 
of this engagement was to assure us the possession of 
Cold Harbor, a place which derived all its importance 
from the convergence at that point of several main 
roads. 

This half-success encouraged General Meade to at- 
tempt more. On the 3d, at daybreak, the whole line 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 585 

charged across the marshy land, through the abatis and 
the thickets, and soon after the whole line fell back, 
repulsed at all points. On the left only. Barlow had 
entered the enemy's works, and Gibbon reached the 
parapet, which did not prevent both being driven back, 
with a loss so much the heavier in that they had ad- 
vanced so far. 

In this unfortunate affair, the enemy could not have 
lost more than two thousand men. Our loss was thir- 
teen thousand. The number sufficiently shows the 
bravery displayed by the assailants. They did all that 
was possible ; but the impossible was asked of them. 

A month had passed, to a day, since the Army of the 
Potomac had opened the campaign by crossing the 
Rapidan. During these thirty-one days and thirty-one 
nights, it had had severe privations to undergo, fatigues 
without number to endure, battles terrible and numer- 
ous to fight. It had surmounted everything by an in- 
domitable energy, and by a bravery which nothing could 
discourage. Finally, at the cost of enormous sacrifices, 
it had reached the Chickahominy, a few miles from 
Richmond, in that region already too well known by 
McClellan's disastrous campaign. Can it be said that 
the result was worth to us all it cost ? I think not. 
More could have been gained, at a much less expense ; 
for along the whole road lay the bodies of our soldiers, 
— many without burial, — and the military hospitals 
were overflowing with the sick and wounded. The offi- 
cial reports made the extent of our losses more than 
sixty thousand men, and yet we were very far from 
having attained our goal. Besides, both the govern- 
ment and the people began to be alarmed at the sacri- 
fices. 

General Grant himself must have been troubled, and 
thought thereafter to modify a plan of campaign which 



586 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

had deceived his expectations and disappointed his 
hopes. As much and more than any one else, he un- 
derstood that he could have led the army to its present 
position, sparing the greater part of the blood shed. 
He had advanced only by a series of turning move- 
ments on the enemy's right. Now, he could have 
easily made them, without delivering the deadly as- 
saults which had cost us so much, wherever the enemy 
had barred our passage. But it did not enter into his 
plans to drive back Lee's army to the walls of Rich- 
mond intact. His object was first to destroy it ; if that 
could not be done, to so enfeeble and demoralize it, by 
such a succession of terrible blows, that he would only be 
able to have the remains of it to put behind the fortifi- 
cations of the Confederate capital. What he sought, 
above all, was to force his adversary to some great bat- 
tle, where he could crush him under the double supe- 
riority of numbers and tactics. 

But Lee was not the general to so expose himself. 
Once only had he assumed the offensive to fall on the 
flank of our army in march, because in the Wilderness 
the nature of the country offered him advantages quite 
exceptional. He had, however, failed ; and from that 
day had obstinately confined himself to a prudent de- 
fensive, in works long prepared. In that respect, the 
topographical disposition of the country presented inex- 
haustible resources. Besides, in prevision of the con- 
flict of which it might be the theatre, this region had 
been studied with care, and the best positions to stop 
the march of an army on Richmond had not only been 
determined on, but prepared by works at least sketched 
out. Lee ably availed himself of these advantages, and 
this forced his adversary to sacrifice more than he had 
counted on, in order to accomplish his designs. 

In the impossibility of bringing the Confederate gen- 



BATTLE AFTER BATTLE. 587 

eral to an open battle, Grant had endeavored to demol- 
ish the hostle army by terrible blows, behind the in- 
trenchments, the disadvantages of which to us might be 
compensated by the superiority of our forces and of our 
resources. If his calculations were not realized, neither 
can it be said that they had completely failed, since the 
operations of the month of May cost the enemy a clear 
third of the forces he had on the Rapidan. The pro- 
portion of our losses was greater ; it was nearly two- 
fifths of the army with which we had opened the cam- 
paign ; but it was a question of reserved resources, and, 
as the rebellion had put absolutely all in the field, its 
armies must be worn out before ours in all respects, and 
it must give up from exhaustion in a short time. 

The two auxiliary armies of the James and of West- 
ern Virginia had not rendered the services to General 
Grant which he expected from them. General Butler, 
having debarked without opposition at Bermuda Hun- 
dred, at the confluence of the Appomattox and the 
James, had been content to cover himself with in- 
trenchments, after having burnt a few bridges, destroyed 
a few pieces of railroad, and attacked, without success, 
a rebel force established at Drury's Bluff. The enemy 
had had no trouble in inclosing him in that position by 
a line of contravallation, so that the reenforcements 
brought by Beauregard from the two Carolinas had a 
clear road, and could be used either to defend Rich- 
mond or to enlarge Lee's army. 

General Sigel, in his field, had managed so poorly 
that on May 15 he had been beaten at New Market, 
and driven as far as Cedar Creek, leaving the passage 
open for other reenforcements, also bound for Lee's 
army. Thus all the accessory combinations of General 
Grant failed. Sigel, relieved from his command, was 
replaced by General Hunter, and one-half of Butler's 



588 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

forces, become useless in the corner in which they were 
inclosed, were employed to reenforce the Army of the 
Potomac, which they joined in time to take part in the 
battle of Cold Harbor. 

In the West everything was going on well. General 
Sherman, commander-in-chief of the united armies of the 
Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio, had driven 
Johnston back from position to position, from Dalton as 
far as Kenesaw. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 

Passage of the James — First attack on Petersburg — My return to the 
army — City Point — General Ingalls — A night at headquarters — 
General Hancock — Losses of my brigade during two months' cam- 
paign — Losses of the Second Corps — Fortnight of extra duty — The 
colored troops — Early's expedition against Washington — Between 
the cup and the lip there is room for: a hanging — First Deep 
Bottom expedition — Hurried return. 

In consequence of the check at Cold Harbor, a rest- 
lessness was becoming general among the people, 
which the government in vain pretended not to notice. 
After so many bloody conflicts, after so many heavy 
sacrifices, the enemy still presented to us an undaunted 
front. On seeing the army halted on the banks of the 
Chickahominy, it was asked if Grant was about to 
renew again those operations around Richmond which 
had succeeded so poorly under McClellan. Public 
opinion, shaken in its confidence, already began to 
listen to the sinister interpretations of the opposition 
journals, when, in the last half of June, it learned that 
the lieutenant-general had boldly crossed the James, 
and laid siege before Petersburg. 

The time had passed when the commander-in-chief, 
directing or not directing the armies from his cabinet, 
subordinated all the movements of the army to the 
incessantly repeated order : " Cover Washington and 
Harper's Ferry;" when the President, interpreting 
literally his constitutional command of all land and 
naval forces, interfered in the plans of the campaign at 

589 



590 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC AR:\IV. 

the pleasure of his individual counsellors. This was 
completely changed. General Grant had no one but 
himself to consult, for, while accepting the whole 
responsibility, he had reserved to himself complete 
liberty of action. 

When he unexpectedly transferred the theatre of 
operations across the James, public opinion fluctuated, 
wavering between what it had to fear and what to hope. 
I imagine that at Washington there was much less 
indecision ; they at first saw but one effect of that 
great movement : the capital uncovered ; and the gov- 
ernment, which had not made a study of military strat- 
egy, was very ill at ease at no longer having its grand 
army between the rebels and itself. 

This passage of the James was, however, a very fine 
movement, as ably executed as it was boldly conceived. 
It inaugurated a new phase in the campaign. Up to 
this time. Grant was content to "hammer away " inces- 
santly at the enemy, as he said himself, changing his 
base as he advanced, transferring successively his 
depots of supplies from Washington to Acquia Creek, 
from there to Port Royal on the Rappahannock, thence 
to White House on the Pamunkey, and now from 
White House to City Point on the James. Hence- 
forth, the battering not having produced the expected 
effect, Grant was about to try the resources of military 
science, and give precedence to strategic combina- 
tions. 

In the first place, he took his measures so well to 
conceal his intentions from the enemy that the latter 
did not recognize the character of the movement until 
it was already executed. Warren was ordered to occupy 
Lee's attention by the menace of an advance on Rich- 
mond from the direction of White Oak swamp, while 
Smith (W. F.) recmbarked from White House to return 



In front of PETERSBURG. 59 1 

to Bermuda Hundred, and Hancock, with the Second 
Corps, would be transferred to the right bank of the 
James by a flotilla of large steamers collected at Wilcox 
Landing for that purpose. At the same time, a bridge 
of boats was thrown across a little below, where there 
were thirteen fathoms of water in the channel, and 
where the river was more than two thousand feet 
broad. The Fifth and Sixth Corps crossed over on 
the bridge. 

Grant hoped to get hold or Petersburg by a coup de 
main. If he had succeeded, the fall of Richmond 
would have soon followed in all probability. Unfortu- 
nately, delays occurred and contretemps which caused 
the opportunity to fail and completely modified the 
course of events. General Smith (W. F.), after liaving 
carried the first line, which was defended by militia 
only, did not know how to take advantage of his 
first success. Proceeding methodically and cautiously, 
where it was, above all, necessary to act with vigor and 
promptness, he put off the serious work until the next 
morning. Hancock, in his turn, debarked on the right 
bank, did not receive the order to march on Petersburg 
until he had been delayed to wait for rations which 
were behindhand, and went astray in his march owing 
to false indications on a map which had been sent to 
him as correct. In short, he lost precious hours in the 
afternoon of June 15, and on the morning of the i6th 
it was too late ; Lee's troops had arrived. 

Nevertheless, the intrenchments thrown up hastily 
by the enemy were not so formidable that they might 
not be carried. In the morning, a fresh attack, with 
Birney's and Gibbon's divisions, met with some success, 
but with no decisive results. In the afternoon, the 
Ninth Corps having arrived, the attempt was renewed 
on a greater scale, and it ended by carrying the line at 



59- FOUR \"EARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sundown, after a hard fight and considerable loss. On 
the next morning, a new assault, always by the Second 
Corps, supported by the Ninth. The enemy lost more 
ground and a redoubt of importance. In the evening, 
he succeeded in surprising the intrenchments which 
Burnside had taken from him. All these fights were 
not without cost ; the loss of that day alone, on our 
side, amounted to four thousand men. 

The Confederates defended the ground step by step, 
with such determination, only to gain the time neces- 
sary to finish a stronger and better selected line, on the 
hills immediately around the city. They retired to 
these lines in the following night, and during the whole 
of the 1 8th they sustained in them a series of attacks 
which met with no success. From that da}', the siege 
of Petersburg was resolved upon, and regular works 
were begun. 

It must be remarked that this siege was not a siege, 
properly speaking. The place was never even invested. It 
lies twenty-two miles south of Richmond, on the right 
bank of the Appomattox, eight miles southwest of City 
Point, where that river empties into the James, and 
where the new base of supplies of the army was natu- 
rally established. So that we had turned Richmond to 
put ourselves across a part of the enemy's communica- 
tions with the South, and directly threaten the rest. 
These communications were : the railroads to Norfolk, 
Weldon, and Lynchburg, and the Jerusalem and Boyd- 
ton roads, — all ending at Petersburg. Besides these, 
the Confederate capital had only the James River canal, 
to the west, and the Dansville railroad, to the south. 
The latter did not extend beyond the limits of Virginia, 
but it crossed the Lynchburg railroad at Burksville, 
which doubled its resources. If, then, we succeeded in 
enveloping Petersburg only on the right bank of the 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBITIG. 



593 



Appomattox, the population and the Confederate army 
would be reduced to draw all their sni^lies from Rich- 
mond by a single-track railroad. To accomf^h that 
was our effort ; to prevent it, the enemy's : that was 
the point towards which all the (^>erations of the siege 
were directed for nine months. On the day on which 
we finally succeeded, Petersburg and Richmond fell at 
the same blow, and the whole structure of the rebellion 
crumbled with these two cities^ I have now to rdate 
by what long series of efforts, labms, and battles we at 
last accomplished this great triumph. 

On June 27, at the request oi General Meade, I was 
finally relieved from my command at New York, with 
orders to rejoin the Army of the Potomac as soon as my 
successor arrived to take m}r place. Many days passed 
away while I waited for him, which by so much delayed 
my departure: I did not reach Fortress Mcmroe, where 
I was to meet my servants, my horses, and my baggage, 
untfl July 9. But the transpmt aa whidi they were 
shipped, they told me, was detained at Hew Ycnk for 
twenty-four hours aft^- the aq^minted time. What was 
I to do in the meantime ? There had f mnerly been a 
hotel under the walls oS. the fcHtress, but it was now 
turned into a hosfHtaL There was nothing to be 
found but sutlers" tents and a restaurant where one 
might get something to eat but no |^ce to sleeps the 
daily service of the military steamers bong made 
directly frmn Washington to City Point, and making 
connecticm with the Baltimore steamers, so that those 
going either wav were nevo- obliged to pass a night at 
the fortress. Fwrtunately for me, the French steam 
corvette Pkl^/ikffm was anchored in the bay, and I 
was aUe to ask her cocnmander, Mandet, whom I had 
m^ in Kew York, for hospattality, which he rendered 
me in the most ccwdial manner. Thanks to him and to 



594 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

his officers, three days of waiting passed off in the most 
agreeable manner in the world for me. 

My baggage having arrived, I left on the evening of 
the 1 2th for City Point, where I arrived about four 
o'clock in the afternoon. Steamboats and sailing ves- 
sels, transports and lighters of all kinds, encumbered 
the river near the improvised wharves on which they 
were still working. Higher up, towards Richmond, the 
eye could distinguish at a distance the turrets of the 
monitors, which appeared to stand out of the water, 
and the gunboats, on which enormous pivot guns were 
visible. The river bank, rising up high, had been 
cleared and levelled, so as to make room for storehouses 
for supplies, and for a station for the railroad. All this 
had sprung out of the earth as if by magic, in less than 
a month. The railroad ran behind the docks ; the loco- 
motives were running back and forth, leaving long 
plumes of smoke, and on the ground trails of coals and 
sparks of fire. All was activity and movement. Legions 
of negroes were discharging the ships, wheeling dirt, 
sawing the timber, and driving piles. Groups of soldiers 
crowded around the sutlers' tents ; horsemen in squad- 
rons went down to the river to water their horses. 
And, on the upper plateau, huts of different forms and 
sizes overlooked the whole scene below. A great vil- 
lage of wood and cloth was erected there, where a few 
weeks before were but two or three houses. 

The largest of these, and one which must have been 
a fine dwelling, now held the offices of General R. 
Ingalls, Quartermaster-General of the army. It was 
General Ingalls who, since the opening of the campaign, 
had changed our depots successively to four different 
points, and that with so much order and precision that 
rations had not been wanting to the army for a day. 
As the last train had departed when I debarked at City 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 595 

Point, I would have been forced to pass a very disa- 
greeable night if General Ingalls had not very obli- 
gingly put at my disposal a light wagon, which carried 
me that same evening to headquarters in front of 
Petersburg. 

General Meade did me the honor to welcome me as 
an old acquaintance whom he was very glad to see. I 
had just finished explaining to him by what train of 
circumstances I had been kept in New York and at 
Fortress Monroe when Colonel Chanal presented him- 
self at the door of the tent. The colonel belonged to 
the artillery corps in the French army. He had come 
to America on an official mission, to study our different 
systems of arms, and especially our innovations in artil- 
lery. This mission had brought him to the Army of 
the Potomac, where his studies were soon completed by 
practical observations. We had already made each 
other's acquaintance on his arrival at New York. So 
that, when General Meade finished the conversation by 
inviting me to pass the night at headquarters, I ac- 
cepted with pleasure the offer of a place under the tent 
of Colonel Chanal. 

On leaving General Meade, I found that I was among 
friends, as the greater part of the officers of the staff 
were personally known to me. In war the sharing to- 
gether of the same dangers and privations establishes 
more prompt and cordial relations than common occu- 
pations or pleasures do in other walks of life. Every 
one welcomed me, asked me the news from New York 
and Washington, what was said here, and what was 
being done there, giving me in return accounts of 
our friends, both those who survived and those whom 
death had taken. 

The hour for retiring came ; but under Colonel 
Chanal's tent the watch was much prolonged, around a 



596 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

supper seasoned with appetite, and accompanied, in 
place of music, by the continual crackling of the picket 
firing. As I asked for information in regard to the 
cause of this unusual noise at that hour, " It is," they 
told me, " Burnside, who is protecting the works of his 
mine." I learned then that General Burnside, whose 
front was very near the enemy's works, had undertaken 
to blow up a redoubt by means of a mine. From what 
I heard about it, it seemed to me that the enterprise 
inspired little confidence, and that generally it was 
regarded rather as a subject for pleasantry than an 
object of interest. 

The next morning, early, I mounted on horseback to 
report to General Hancock, after having thanked Gen- 
eral Meade for having assigned me to the Second 
Corps, the one, above all, to which I preferred to be 
attached. The weather was magnificent, and the sun 
very warm, even at that early hour. A part of the 
troops were in motion, and raised thick clouds of dust, 
through which we could scarcely breathe. It was, how- 
ever, only a change of position of a division in the im- 
mediate neighborhood of the house where General 
Hancock had established his headquarters. I could, 
then, easily find him, to present to him the order of 
which I was the bearer. 

General Hancock is one of the handsomest men in 
the United States army. He is tall in stature, robust 
in figure, with movements of easy dignity. His head, 
shaded by thick hair of a light chestnut color, strikes 
one favorably from the first by the regularity of his 
features and the engaging expression which is habitual 
to him. His manners are generally very polite. His 
voice is pleasant, and his speech as agreeable as his 
looks. Such is Hancock in repose. In action he is 
entirely different. Dignity gives way to activity ; his 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 597 

features become animated, his voice loud, his eyes are 
on fire, his blood kindles, and his bearing is that of a 
man carried away by passion, — the character of his 
bravery. It is this, I think, which renders him much 
less fit for an independent command than to act under 
orders. We will see in the course of our narrative that, 
after having distinguished himself above all others at 
the head of a division or an army corps, he was much 
less fortunate in independent operations which were 
intrusted to him. Brilliant in the second rank, he did 
not shine so brightly when occupying the first. Was it 
a question of execution ? he was admirable. If it was 
necessary to plan and direct, he was no longer equal to 
the occasion. This is often the case amongst soldiers. 
Like Benedeck, Hancock could have performed marvels 
at Solferino at the head of a corps, and as commander- 
in-chief lose the army at Sadowa. 

His popularity was as great, perhaps greater than 
that of any other officer of his rank. This is easily 
explained : firstly, by the brilliancy of his service, and 
also by the particular care he always took to have it 
known. The correspondents of the principal journals 
yielded, like every one else, to his captivating bearing 
and manners ; information was freely given them in the 
form of reports by the general, — often, without doubt, to 
avoid all error, — their correspondence was submitted 
to his inspection, so that the result was sometimes par- 
tialities of which they were hardly conscious. 

For, the truth must be told, General Hancock had 
his partialities ; and if some were justified by the real 
merits and the capacity of those who were the objects 
of them, others were, on the contrary, inexplicable by 
any military consideration, and were connected with 
political aims, in which the general allowed himself to 
be drawn too easily. But, not to speak of persons, his 



598 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

first two divisions were much closer to his affections 
than the third, which came from the old Third Corps. 
And yet no one will ever think that that division 
brought him less honor than the two others. By a 
close examination it could be easily proved that it did 
him greater services than the second. 

For my part, I was far from suspecting anything of 
the sort during my first interview. General Hancock's 
welcome was most cordial. He did all I could wish, by 
assigning me to my old division, and, like so many 
others, I was under the spell when I left him to pre- 
sent myself to General Birney. 

I shall never forget with what radiant cordiality Bir- 
ney stretched out his hand when he saw me at his tent 
door. "At last you are back again," he said to me. 
" We have been expecting you for some time. I need 
not tell you with what pleasure I see you amongst us 
again." 

The pleasure was mutual, for I felt like a traveller 
who returns home after a long absence. Through the 
tent door I saw passing back and forth some well 
known officers of the staff. Soon General Mott en- 
tered. We sat down in the shade of the great trees 
which sheltered headquarters, and I listened, with an 
interest easy to understand, to the details of some of the 
battles in which the division had recently taken part. 
It had been in some severe ones, — so severe that the 
Fourth Division (formerly Humphrey's) had been con- 
solidated with the Third, which put Mott for the time 
being at the head of a brigade. Pierce, promoted to 
brigadier-general, now commanded the brigade which I 
had commanded at Gettysburg. There remained the 
brigade of General Ward, who left the army at Spott- 
sylvania, and was not to return. This command was 
assigned to me. 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 599 

I had already commanded it by intervals when I was 
connected with it, first as colonel of the Fifty-fifth, and 
afterward of the Thirty-eighth ; but there had been 
great changes in it since that time. Then it was com- 
posed of six regiments ; now it had ten, without, how- 
ever, having any more men fit for duty, the last cam- 
paign had so largely reduced their numbers. Here is 
the official account of the losses of the brigade during 
only two months, from May 5 to July 5 : — 

FIRST BRIGADE, THIRD DIVISION, SECOND CORPS. 

Denomination. Killed. Wounded. Missing. Total. 

Officers 22 73 8 103 

Non-commissioned officers and 

privates 252 1438 293 1983 

Total . 2086 

The loss was three-quarters, calculating the effective, 
at the opening of the campaign, at twenty-eight hundred 
men, which is a large reckoning, that number much 
exceeding former averages. This proportion agreed, 
however, with the condition of the brigade when I took 
the command. Notwithstanding the return of a large 
number of convalescents, and after the addition of five 
new regiments, two-thirds of the effective was still 
absent. Out of sixty-nine hundred and seventy-six men 
I could put into line only about two thousand. 

The losses of the other divisions were in like propor- 
tion. I have always heard that those of the Second 
Corps were estimated at twenty-four thousand men. 
Certainly they exceeded twenty thousand, and the reen- 
forcements received did not raise its effective force 
above twelve thousand. In this effective, in conse- 
quence of the consolidation of the Fourth Division with 
the Third, the latter had nearly one-half. My brigade 
was the strongest in the corps, and I doubt if there was 



600 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

another in the whole army which could report twenty- 
four hundred and forty-four men present for duty. 

These figures by themselves are so eloquent that it is 
useless to add a word. On comparing them with those 
of European wars, one will appreciate what kind of a 
war we were carrying on in America. 

During a fortnight the Second Corps laid down the 
musket for the spade and the pick. As it was in reserve 
since an unfortunate attempt to turn the right of the 
enemy's lines, — a movement in which the Third Divis- 
ion had suffered the most, — the details for work were 
taken from it by right. We had first to cut down and 
level the intrenchments raised by the Confederates ; 
then to make covered ways by which the troops could 
move, and ammunition and rations be carried to the 
front of our lines, without being exposed to the obser- 
vation, and, consequently, to the fire, of the enemy. 
As the work was carried on principally by night, we 
were troubled very little ; but, even if little dangerous, 
this kind of service is not very pleasant. 

Our line extended, at this time, to Jerusalem plank 
road, between the Norfolk railroad, which was in our 
possession, and the Weldon railroad, of which we were 
to take possession before long. Our works ended at 
this point by a redoubt, marked out, but not finished, 
but sufficient, however, to hold the road, and sweep a 
broad ravine, along which our rifle-pits were prolonged 
in return. The pickets of the enemy, covered by rifle- 
pits, were exceedingly close, and would have been able 
to trouble very much the workings of our guns by our 
cannoneers. But, in accordance with a tacit agreement, 
the fire of the skirmishers was suspended, so that on 
both sides these passed back and forth openly, while 
the firing was carried on only at night, to guard against 
surprise. 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 6oi 

It was quite different along the front of the Ninth 
Corps, which held on the right of the Fifth. Along 
that part of the line, the exchange of artillery and 
musketry fire was carried on day and night without 
interruption. The working of the mine might have 
accounted for part of this, but other reasons were the 
prevailing ones for this reciprocal bitterness. Two 
Maryland brigades, one Union, the other Confederate, 
were opposed to each other, and one can understand 
that between enemies from the same State there could 
be no compromise. In addition, there were in Burn- 
side's command some colored troops, against whom the 
soldiers of the South showed a particular animosity. 
The colored troops returned their hatred in full meas- 
ure. The causes were not far to seek. Without speak- 
ing of their national hatred towards those who were 
holding their race in slavery, and treating their breth- 
ren in bondage like a kind of cattle, all their resent- 
ment was more than justified by the odious cruelties of 
which those of them who fell into the enemy's hands 
were the victims. For instance, in the month of April 
preceding, a rebel general by the name of Forrest 
having carried Fort Pillow, as much by trickery as by 
force, the whole garrison, composed almost entirely of 
colored troops, had been massacred with an inhuman 
refinement of cruelty. Neither sex nor age was spared, 
and the Southern brutes, drunk with blood, finished 
their work by including the whites themselves in the 
revolting butchery. Since that time, the black troops 
took less prisoners, knowing what awaited themselves 
if they were captured, and urged each other on to 
battle by the cry, " Remember Fort Pillow ! " So, 
when, during an evening, at the time when the regi- 
ments were relieved in the intrenchments, an increase 
of cannon and musketry fire was heard on the front of 



602 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the Ninth Corps, it was generally remarked: "The 
colored troops are taking their turn in the intrench- 
ments." 

The labor of completing and strengthening our lines 
was not the only reason which delayed their extension 
to the Weldon railroad. Some new movements were 
taking place near Washington, of which we awaited the 
issue. Along in the early part of July, General Lee, 
profiting by the field being left open to the north of 
Richmond, had sent a corps of twelve to fifteen thou- 
sand men into the Shenandoah valley, under command 
of General Early. The latter had the field of opera- 
tions to himself, for the reason that General Hunter, 
after having penetrated the country as far as Lynch- 
burg, had been compelled to retire before superior 
forces, and to take his line of retreat through Western 
Virginia. Early, finding nothing in front of him, ad- 
vanced rapidly on Winchester and Martinsburg, from 
which place Sigel retired at his approach, to the north 
of the Potomac. Early, continuing on his way, crossed 
the river, entered Frederick without opposition, and 
prepared to march directly on Washington. 

The object of this vigorous demonstration was to 
compel us to let go our hold on Petersburg. Twice 
already Lee had succeeded, by a similar manoeuvre, in 
sending our army north of the Potomac, and, although 
the operation was conducted on a smaller scale, he 
hoped that Grant would be in a hurry to fly to the re- 
lief of the menaced capital, and that he would thus 
lose the fruit of two months' hard campaigning. But 
he was counting without his host. Halleck was no 
longer at the head of the armies, and Grant was not a 
man to whom the administration pretended to pre- 
scribe what he had to do, or whom it could direct 
according to its whims. 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 603 

The general-in-chief took the matter coolly. He 
measured with a calm eye the extent of this invasion 
on a small scale, and contented himself by sending on 
the Sixth Corps to meet it. Wright's troops arrived 
at Washington the morning after leaving City Point. 
At the same time, the Nineteenth Corps, coming from 
New Orleans, under the command of General Emory, 
entered the James, and anchored in front of Fortress 
Monroe. There it received orders to continue on up 
the Chesapeake, and, instead of reenforcing the army 
before Petersburg, to join the Sixth Corps at Wash- 
ington. 

When Early, advancing from Frederick, arrived on 
the Monocacy, the passage was disputed by the division 
of General Ricketts, which had preceded the others, 
and by some worthless troops which General Wallace 
had assembled in haste. The enemy succeeded in driv- 
ing them back on Baltimore ; but when he presented 
himself in front of Georgetown he found that Wright 
had arrived before him. He had nothing to do but re- 
tire as fast as possible, which he did, pursued by the 
Sixth Corps as far as the valley of the Shenandoah, 
where he did not halt until he was a long distance from 
the Potomac. It was thought that they were free from 
him, but, as he threatened to renew his attempt, the two 
army corps were left for a long time to guard Washing- 
ton. This protective measure was happily completed 
by uniting, under one command, four little military de- 
partments which surrounded the capital but did not 
defend it. United in one hand, it was to be hoped they 
would render more service than they would create em- 
barrassment. Hitherto it had been directly the con- 
trary. 

Lee's plan, then, had failed ; but he might attempt to 
renew it, by sending reenforcements to Early. Grant 



604 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

resolved to prevent this by menacing Richmond, on the 
left bank of the James, or at least by destroying the 
bridge of boats which the enemy had at Chapin's Bluff 
to maintain his communications from one bank to the 
other. This expedition was intrusted to Hancock, re- 
enforced by two divisions of cavalry led by Sheridan. 

On July 26, we received orders to be ready to march 
with four days' rations, and a hundred rounds of ammu- 
nition to a man, forty of which would go in the 
ammunition wagons. No quartermaster train would 
follow us, except a few wagons with intrenching tools, 
and twenty ambulances to a division, which betokened 
some hard work. Where were we going .-' We knew 
nothing of our destination when we started, at five 
o'clock in the afternoon. Mott commanded the division, 
Birney having been promoted a few days before to the 
command of the Tenth Corps, which formed part of 
Butler's forces. 

On reaching the City Point road, we marched in front 
of a double gallows, on which the night before two 
wagoners of the Seventy-second New York had been 
hanged, under circumstances which will give some idea of 
the discipline which ruled in the Army of the Potomac. 
The term of service of the regiment had expired. It 
was about to leave the army. The two teamsters had 
been mustered out like the others, when, on the eve of 
departure, they conceived the fatal idea of going to 
spend the night at an isolated farmhouse some distance 
away, where a woman, still young, lived alone, and 
whom, it appeared, they thought engaging. They 
reached the place late in the evening, and succeeded in 
inducing her to open the door on some pretext. As 
soon as they were within, they attacked the woman, and 
treated her person with shameful violence. "She will not 
dare," they thought, " to tell the secret." And besides. 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG. 605 

as the regiment was to leave the next day, they would 
be far away before she could make complaint. In that 
they deceived themselves. At daylight, the outraged 
woman was at headquarters, and entered her complaint 
before the provost-marshal. Search was immediately 
made. Suspicions were naturally directed towards the 
mustered-out regiment, where, in fact, the guilty ones 
were soon discovered. On seeing their comrades de- 
part to return home, they must have had bitter reflec- 
tions on the danger of yielding to the impulses of pas- 
sion. Perhaps they too had families awaiting their 
return. But it was too late. The court-martial was 
merciless. Between the cup and the lips there was 
room for a hanging. They were executed in full view 
of the enemy's lines, to show the rebels how justice was 
done amongst us. I do not say that the example was 
not a good one ; but, the time of service expired, on the 
eve of seeing their kin — it was hard. 

At nightfall we left the City Point railroad to cross 
the Appomattox, on the bridge of boats which con- 
nected our position with Butler's at Bermuda Hundred. 
The march continued the whole night ; sometimes in 
the woods, sometimes through the fields. Fires, kept 
up along the road by cavalry soldiers, marked out the 
way for us. At dawn, somewhat tired, we crossed the 
James, at Jones' Neck, on a bridge of boats. At six 
o'clock my skirmishers were in contact with the enemy. 

The enemy's troops were some which Lee had sent 
-to dislodge, or at least hold in check, a brigade of But- 
ler's, intrenched on the left bank of the river, near 
Deep Bottom. General Foster, who was in command, 
had successfully repulsed several attacks when we came 
to assist him. His adversaries turned promptly against 
us, and took position on the borders of a wood, which 
commanded the plain where we were. Miles' brigade 



6o6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

and mine were deployed in advance, each of us covering 
his division. On my right, the Fortieth New York ; 
on my centre, the One Hundred and Forty-first Penn- 
sylvania, and the Second Battalion of sharpshooters ad- 
vanced without serious opposition to the position 
assigned to them, around two farmhouses of some im- 
portance. But on my left the Ninety-ninth and Hun- 
dred and Tenth Pennsylvania had just entered into a 
field of corn, where they were received by a fusillade 
from the wood in front of them. The fire becoming: 
hotter from that quarter, I sent the Seventy-third New 
York to reenforce them. They then continued their 
advance, and had just dislodged the skirmishers of the 
enemy, who were in the corn, when the One Hundred 
and Tenth, which connected on the left with the other 
brigade, observed four guns in position within a short 
distance. Their fire was immediately turned obliquely 
on the artillerymen, while the Ninety-ninth and the 
Seventy-third, continuing to engage the infantry, 
obliqued towards the left to draw nearer the cannon. 

Meanwhile Miles, profiting by a hollow of the ground, 
rapidly disposed four of his regiments for a charge, 
which was quickly made. The four guns were taken. 
Some other pieces, less exposed, took position in front 
of me, and began to burst their shells and throw their 
solid shot amongst my four regiments in reserve. Two 
of our batteries hurried up to silence them, and com- 
pelled the enemy to withdraw into the woods, where 
their infantry also soon disappeared. 

About nine o'clock the affair was over. My regiments 
were able to get a little rest, after a night march and a 
morning of skirmishing, while some other troops were 
thrown forward in pursuit of the enemy, who, however, 
did not retire far. He had simply fallen back into a 
second line of intrenchments, behind a stream of water 



IN FRONT OF PETERSBURG, 607 

called Bailey's Creek. To attack him in front appeared 
to General Hancock too hazardous. The cavalry was 
sent to find out what was the chance for a turning 
movement. While waiting, necessary precautions were 
taken not to be turned ourselves, and my brigade was 
ordered to cover the right flank of the expeditionary 
corps. 

We passed the night in this manner. On the morn- 
ing of the 28th, Lee had already sent considerable 
forces against us, whose attack General Sheridan had 
to sustain. He successfully repulsed it ; but hence- 
forth it could no longer be a question of reaching 
Chapin's Bluff, still less of surprising Richmond. That 
evening, at dark, as soon as Miles had relieved me, I 
marched to join General Mott near the bridge of boats. 

The division was ordered to return that same night 
to the front of Petersburg, and receive instructions 
there from General Ord. Barlow's and Gibbon's divis- 
ions were to remain at Deep Bottom twenty-four hours 
longer. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE MINE. 

Universality of Yankee genius — The mine dug by Colonel Pleasants — 
Project of assault — General Burnside's plan — Unfortunate modifica- 
tions — Lots drawn — Last preparations — The match goes out — The 
explosion — The crater — Terrible fiasco — The double investigation 
— Different conclusions — The true cause of the want of success. 

General Ord had recently arrived from the West, 
where he had served up to this time. General Grant, 
knowing him to be an officer of merit, had transferred 
him to General Butler's army, where he took the place 
of General W. F. Smith, as commander of the Eigh- 
teenth Corps. For the time being he occupied the right 
of our lines, in front of Petersburg. His headquarters 
were on the top of a hill, whence the view embraced apart 
of our intrenchments, and glimpses as far as the city 
of Petersburg, of which the steeples and some of the 
edifices could be seen. There we learned the cause of 
our sudden recall from Deep Bottom. 

The mine dug under the direction of Burnside was 
finished and charged. The firing of it was fixed for the 
next day, July 30, and was to be followed immediately 
by a charge of the Ninth Corps, with the support of the 
Eighteenth. For this reason our division had been re- 
called, to relieve the troops of General Ord in the 
trenches. 

A few details on the manner in which this work was 
carried out may be interesting here. 

The engineer officers took no part in it. This will, 
without doubt, appear more extraordinary in Europe than 

608 



THE MINE. 609 

in America. One must remember the miiversality of 
the Yankee genius, and that the men of that race, as 
intelhgent as they are enterprising, are accustumed to 
undertake the most diverse tasks. No people ever at- 
tached themselves less to one single pursuit. Their 
principle is that intelligence can do everything. Thus 
they advance faster to success. Everywhere except in 
the United States the capabilities of the mind are 
marked off in categories. Aptitudes are considered as 
exclusive, and every one chooses his career according to 
his supposed bent. This is a great error. 

Organizations well developed are capable of perform- 
ing very different tasks. The same man, perhaps, may 
be at the same time a thinker and a man of action, a 
man of law and a man of war, a philosopher and a man- 
ufacturer, a merchant and an artist, a mathematician 
and a poet. He may not have all his faculties equally 
developed ; but they are not exclusive of others. The 
Yankee understands this, and tries everything, ready if 
he fails in one pursuit to essay another. That is why 
he always ends by succeeding; 

It is not that he is better endowed by nature than 
other men ; it is due to education. In his infancy he 
has not been put into the swaddling-clothes of traditions 
and prejudices ; opinions ready made are not imposed 
upon him ; neither the government nor the church has 
weighed down upon his young intelligence. He has 
grown up in free air ; he has learned to rely, above all, 
upon himself, and he knows that on his own value de- 
pends the place he will take in the midst of a people 
amongst whom everything starts from the initiative of 
the individual. Hence the breadth of all his faculties, 
and the variety of practical knowledge which makes 
such varied use of them. 

But to return to the mine : the first notion of it 



6lO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

occurred to Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pleasants, an 
old civil engineer, now commanding the Forty-eighth 
Pennsylvania. The most advanced point of our lines 
was upon the lower part of a hillside crowned by a sort 
of redoubt, behind which the cemetery hill commanded 
the city of Petersburg. Within our lines, in a deep 
ravine, ran the track of the Norfolk railroad, which was 
hidden from the enemy's view by our works. This 
formation of the ground suggested to Colonel Pleasants 
the idea of opening a horizontal gallery under the 
enemy's works. He proposed it to General Potter, his 
division commander, who in turn submitted it to Gen- 
eral Burnside. The latter approved of it without hesi- 
tation, and the next morning Colonel Pleasants set to 
work. 

The first thing to do was to get the exact distance 
from the mouth of the mine to the redoubt which it was 
intended to blow up. The instruments necessary were 
at headquarters, but the use of them could not be 
obtained. The chief engineers of the army and other 
authorities declared ex cathedra that the project was 
senseless and foolish ; that a mine as long as that had 
never been dug ; that it could not be done ; that the 
men would be stifled by the lack of air or crushed by 
the falling-in of the earth, etc. It resulted from this 
that the general commanding did not approve of the 
undertaking, but only tolerated it. One sees by this 
that Vespiit de corps is the same in every country. 
With specialists, the thing which has not been done 
cannot be done, and, if you propose to them any inno- 
vation not found in their books, nine times out of ten 
they will tell you that it is impossible or absurd. 

General Burnside, who persisted in his idea, sent to 
Washington for an old theodolite, which, however, 
enabled Colonel Pleasants to determine that the length 



THE MINE. 6ll 

of the direct gallery must be five hundred and ten feet, 
at the end of which lateral galleries, curving in an arc 
of a circle, must be dug to the right and left, each thirty- 
eight feet long. It follows, of course, that all assist- 
ance was refused by the engineer corps, which did not 
wish to take any part in an enterprise of which it had 
proclaimed the absurdity. Following suit, the superior 
officers of the army were greatly amused by the 
pleasantry. 

Colonel Pleasants, left to himself without other 
encouragement than that of Burnside and Potter, con- 
tinued his work with an unshakable perseverance. He 
was refused timber ; he sent for it to a sawmill out of 
the lines. They refused him mining picks ; he had the 
common picks in the division fixed over. They refused 
him wheelbarrows ; he had the earth carried out in 
cracker boxes bound with iron taken from old fish 
barrels. So that he was equal to every requirement 
without employing a person outside of his own regi- 
ment of four hundred men, mostly recruited from 
among the miners in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. 

One important point was to conceal the removed 
earth from the view of the enemy, who, if suspecting 
anything, might send some men to the tops of the 
trees on the hill, and discover the works, which it was 
important to conceal from him. For that reason, every 
morning, before daylight, the pioneers covered over the 
earth brought out of the mine during the night with 
branches of trees. The amount of earth removed was 
in all as much as eighteen thousand cubic feet. 

The work, begun June 25, was finished on July 23, 
without accident, in spite of all predictions and of all 
derision. It was then necessary to change the tone. 
The fact must be recognized that the thing was serious. 
That which had been declared impossible was done. 



6l2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The explosion, if it succeeded, and if we knew how to 
get the benefit of it, must deliver Petersburg to us. 

The Deep Bottom expedition had given us the most 
favorable opportunity possible. In fact. General Lee, 
uncertain as to its real importance, and trusting to the 
protection of his lines, had sent more than half of his 
forces to the other side of the James. Hancock would 
keep them there with his two divisions ; he would take 
advantage of the night, to return before Petersburg, 
and when, on the next morning, the rebels should dis- 
cover his retreat of the night before, the assault would 
be made before they would have time to return across 
the river. 

Everything, then, seemed to promise success, provided 
that the assault should be made with vigor and in unison. 
That was the great point, and, unhappily, the one as to 
which the measures taken gave rise to serious appre- 
hensions. The choice of the Ninth Corps to lead the 
attack was far from being the best that could have been 
made. That corps, which had rendered good service in 
North Corolina, in the Army of the Potomac, and in 
Tennessee, had been so reduced by these various cam- 
paigns that it had been necessary to renew it almost 
entirely. Troops of all sorts, mostly newly raised, had 
been incorporated in it ; which had not prevented their 
doing their duty in the positions where they had been 
placed. 

Since their arrival before Petersburg, they had pecul- 
iarly suffered. In the affairs of June ly and i8, they 
had lost three thousand men, and during the whole 
following month they had been subjected to a fatiguing 
and perilous service in the trenches, where the picket 
fire had cost them eleven hundred and fifty men. These 
incessant fatigues, and the habit of always keeping them- 
selves under cover of the intrcnchments, were not 



THE MINE. 613 

of a nature to predispose their divisions to push with 
vigor an open attack. It would have been much better 
to have trusted the assault to more hardy troops, such 
as those of the Second or the Fifth Corps, For myself, 
I am convinced that if Hancock or Warren had had 
charge of the affair we would have carried every- 
thing in a few hours. But Burnside, who had taken the 
lead in having the mine dug, held it as a point of honor 
to complete the work. 

However, it was not without taking account of the 
real condition of his command. So he had concluded 
to put at the head of the column of attack his fourth 
division, composed of colored troops, who, more nu- 
merous and less fatigued than the others, were, taking all 
things into consideration, the ones on whom he could 
best depend. Immediately after the explosion, these 
two brigades were to pass through the opening made in 
the enemy's works, in two columns ; the one to turn to 
the right, and the other to the left ; sweep the inner 
side of the enemy's intrenchments and cover the flanks 
of the three other divisions, who would charge directly 
for the summit of the hill. After them would advance 
the Eighteenth Corps, and our success was assured. 
For it must be remembered that Lee, having sent five 
divisions to the north of the James, had but three left 
at Petersburg. Once established on the hill, the city 
was ours ; the enemy was cut in two ; the left, with its 
back to the Appomattox, would find itself surrounded, 
and the right could do nothing but make a prompt re- 
treat, leaving us all the guns in the intrenchments. 

Such was the plan which General Burnside submitted 
in writing for the approval of General Meade, on July 
26. As a plan it would be difficult to find anything to 
object to it. As to its execution, it remained to see 
how the Ninth Corps would do the work, and how gen- 



6 14 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

eral officers of the corps would act. But the moment it 
was decided to intrust the execution to General Burnside, 
as he knew better than any one else the true condition 
of his troops and how to make the best use of them, it 
would have been wise to leave the details to him, and 
not interfere with the particular measures he had pre- 
pared long before. By not understanding this, General 
Meade committed an error which became the source of 
many others, and incurred also a direct share in the 
responsibility for the want of success. This error was 
in ordering the commander of the Ninth Corps to sub- 
stitute one of his white divisions for the colored one in 
the part assigned to the latter. The general command- 
ing communicated this decision directly to General 
Burnside, on July 28. 

The latter states "that a long conversation suc- 
ceeded, in which I explained to General Meade the con- 
dition of my white divisions. I insisted on the impor- 
tance, in my opinion, of placing the colored division in 
advance, because I thought that at that time it would 
make the charge better than any of the three others. I 
reminded him that the latter had been in the trenches 
for forty days, immediately in front of the enemy, where 
a man could not show his head above the parapet with- 
out drawing out several shots ; that during all this time 
they had been in the habit of coming out of the lines by 
covered ways, and taking all possible means to protect 
themselves against the enemy's fire ; that, nevertheless, 
their losses had been continual, and had amounted to 
some thirty to sixty men a day ; that the soldiers had 
not been able even to cook their meals, which had to be 
prepared in the rear and brought to them ; that, not 
having been able to wash their clothes, they had not 
changed them, and, finally, they were not in a fit condi- 
tion to make a vigorous charge," etc. 



THE MINE. 615 

To these reasons Meade objected "that, without hav- 
ing any reason to believe that the colored troops would 
not do their duty as well as the white, yet, inasmuch as 
they formed a new division which had never been under 
fire, and that the work to be done was such as to demand 
the best troops, he judged it inadmissible to intrust 
it to a division whose courage had not been proved." 

Evidently, the reasons were good on both sides ; but 
what conclusion should have been drawn from them ? 
Clearly, that the Ninth Corps, both black and white 
divisions, were equally unsuitable for the work to be 
done, and that it should be intrusted to others. This 
conclusion, so simple and so logical, did not appear, 
however, to present itself to the mind of either general, 
and, as neither succeeded in convincing the other, Gen- 
eral Meade announced that he should refer the decision 
to the lieutenant-general. 

General Grant, on being consulted, decided in favor 
of the superior officer, against the inferior. So that the 
question was decided more as a matter of discipline 
than as to what was the most suitable. The result 
showed that, and General Grant himself recognized it 
by saying before the court of inquiry : " General Burn- 
side wished to put his colored division in advance, and 
I believe that, if he had done so, success would have 
followed. However, I agreed with General Meade in 
his objections to the proposal. He made the point that 
if we put the only colored division we had in the ad- 
vance, and the affair turned out badly, it would be said, 
and with a show of reason, that we killed off those 
troops because we cared nothing about them," 

The thought of considering "they said " on such an 
occasion is a circumstance curious and to be noted. 
One can guess by that the influence of the electoral 
campaign in the North. Neither Grant nor Meade 



6l6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

wished to run the risk of furnishing to the opposition 
an arm which they would use against the reelection of 
President Lincohi. In any other circumstances, it is 
not to be believed they would have regarded any such 
consideration. 

The final decision was announced to General Burn- 
side on the 29th, twelve or fifteen hours before the time 
fixed for the explosion. It was a cause of great disap- 
pointment and embarrassment to him. Which of the 
three divisions should he choose to replace the fourth ? 
Such was his hesitation that, to get out of it, he resorted 
to the strange expedient of putting the result to lot. 
The lot, which is of course blind, and sometimes is 
pleased to give us some severe lessons, fell upon the 
very division which, if it was not worse than the others, 
was certainly worse commanded. From that instant 
all chance of success was gone. Petersburg would 
escape our grasp for yet a long time. 

The whole night was devoted to the last preparations, 
the attacking divisions forming at their posts as they 
were relieved in the trenches. Our division, which had 
been massed in the woods, out of sight of the enemy, 
during the whole day, took the place of the Eighteenth 
and a part of the Tenth Corps, in that part of the lines 
which extended from Burnside's right to the Appomat- 
tox. My brigade was the nearest to the mine, from 
which it was separated by a curtain of woods. My 
right occupied Fort Stedman, armed with ten guns, 
and near which were twelve mortars. My left was so 
near the enemy that the sharpshooters distributed along 
my front in a trench could easily throw stones into his 
advanced works. The least noise in one line was 
heard in the other, so that on our arrival we were 
saluted with a shower of shells, which did us no partic- 
ular injury. 



THE MINE. 617 

The hour set for the mine explosion was half-past 
three in the morning. I have stated that the principal 
gallery of the mine ended in a transverse gallery in the 
shape of an arc of a circle. In the walls of the latter 
eight narrow passages were made, facing each other 
(four on each side), leading to eight chambers, each con- 
taining a thousand pounds of powder — in all, eight 
thousand pounds. That would make a fine explosion. 
So from three o'clock every one was up, the officers 
watch in hand, eyes fixed on the fated redan, or in that 
direction. 

There were about two hundred men in that work, 
sleeping tranquilly a sleep from which they would awake 
in eternity. Perhaps they were dreaming of returning 
to their families, of the joys of the domestic fireside, at 
the instant when, beneath them. Colonel Pleasants 
(what irony in that name) was applying the fire to the 
match along with which they were about to consume 
the last minutes of their existence. Upon the parapet 
the motionless sentinels were watching the pale lights 
which began to brighten the horizon in the east. 
Silence reigned everywhere, but in our lines all eyes 
were open ; in those of the enemy, nearly all were 
closed. 

From half after three the minutes were counted. — 
It is still too dark, it was said. — At four o'clock it was 
daylight ; nothing stirred as yet ; at a quarter past four 
a murmur of impatience ran through the ranks. — 
What has happend ? Has there been a counter-order ? 
or an accident ? Has the assault been deferred } 

It had happened that the match, which was ninety 
feet long, had gone out at a splice about half-way of its 
length. It was necessary to be certain of it, and the 
risk was great. If the explosion took place, whoever 
was in the gallery was lost. Two intrepid men, Lieu- 



6l8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

tenant Jacob Douty and Sergeant Henry Rees, volun- 
teered to see what was the cause of the delay, and to 
relight the match. Both returned safe and sound. 
The redoubt had a respite of a quarter of an hour. 

Suddenly the earth trembled under our feet. An 
enormous mass sprang into the air. A mass without 
form or shape, full of red flames, and carried on a bed 
of lightning flashes, mounted towards heaven with a 
detonation of thunder. It spread out like a sheaf, like 
an immense mushroom whose stem seemed to be of fire 
and its head of smoke. Then everything appeared to 
break up and fall back in a rain of earth mixed with 
rocks, with beams, timbers, and mangled human bodies, 
leaving floating in the air a cloud of white smoke, which 
rose up in the heavens, and a cloud of gray dust, which 
fell slowly towards the earth. The redan had disap- 
peared. In its place had opened a gaping gulf more 
than two hundred feet long by fifty wide, and twenty- 
five to thirty feet deep. 

Immediately, as though the eruption of a volcano 
had poured out a torrent of lava upon our lines, they 
were on fire from one end to the other. All our bat- 
teries opened at once on the enemy's intrenchments. 
The projectiles whistled, roared, burst. Through the 
deafening noise of the artillery firing was heard a cry, 
and the first division advanced to the assault. 

It had nothing in front of it. The Confederate 
troops occupying the lines to the right and the left in 
the immediate vicinity of the mine had fled precipitately 
through fright and fear of further explosions. The 
others, stupefied, endeavored to see what was going on 
while awaiting orders. The way was completely open 
to the summit of the hill, which was protected by no 
other line of works. 

The column marched directly to the crater, and, 



THE MINE. 619 

instead of turning around it to pursue its way, it de- 
scended into it, in the midst of the torn-up earth. 
Once at the bottom, finding itself sheltered, it remained 
there. A part spread out to the right and the left 
behind the abandoned works. The general command- 
ing (Ledlie) the division had remained within our lines, 
in a bomb-proof. 

The second division, delayed at first by the obstruc- 
tions, was soon mixed up with the other. Several regi- 
ments descended into the crater, the greater part 
extended towards the right without going beyond it. 
Only one brigade succeeded in making its way through, 
so as to advance beyond. It found itself then engaged 
in ground cut up by trenches, by covered ways, by 
sheltered pits dug in the ground. Worse than that, 
the enemy, recovering from his surprise, had already 
profited by the time we had lost, to place his guns in 
position, and form his infantry so as to throw a concen- 
trated fire upon the opening made in his works. After 
having, with difficulty, advanced over the natural obsta- 
cles, the brigade, more than half in confusion, seeing 
that it was neither supported nor reenforced, was com- 
pelled to fall back with loss. 

The third division had not even made a like attempt. 
In mingling with the first, it had simply increased the 
confusion, and crowded together on the left. 

Time was flying ; the opportunity was fast escaping 
us ; the chances of success were disappearing as we 
were looking on. Nothing could force the troops, 
crowded together in the crater, or lying down behind 
the intrenchments, to leave their positions. The of- 
ficers of spirit amongst them exhausted themselves in 
vain efforts. The men would not move. Some officers 
ordered without purpose, and moved around without 
doing anything. The greater part remained, like the 



620 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

men, motionless in a state of paralysis. The mine had 
been blown up two hours, and our forces had not made 
any advance. 

Towards seven o'clock the colored division received 
orders to advance in its turn. The blacks advanced 
resolutely, passed over the passive mass of white troops, 
not a company of whom followed them, and, although 
their ranks were necessarily broken by the obstacle, 
they charged under a deadly fire of artillery and mus- 
ketry, which reached them from all sides at once. 
They even reached the enemy, took from him two hun- 
dred and fifty prisoners, captured a flag, and recovered 
one of ours taken by him. But they were not sus- 
tained. They were driven back by a counter-charge, 
and returned, running in confusion, to our lines, where, 
by this time, a large number of the white troops were 
eager to return with them. 

Until then the Confederates had limited their efforts 
to defending the hill. Encouraged by the feeble at- 
tempts which we had made to reach it, and by the ease 
with which these efforts had been repulsed, they began 
to draw near along the intrenchments, and endeavor 
to retake from us the part of the lines they had 
abandoned. Their guns covered with their fire the 
space which separated the crater from our lines, where 
their mortars rained shell and shot. The troops which 
had taken shelter there found themselves so much the 
worse off that the cross fire of the skirmishers rendered 
the rear communication more difficult. 

At this time. General Meade, seeing the day lost 
without hope of recovery, sent orders to retreat. Gen- 
eral Burnside endeavored in vain to obtain a suspen- 
sion of the order. He still hoped, with more obstinacy 
than reason, not only to maintain himself on the 
enemy's line until night, but even to carry the hill. 



THE MINE. 621 

About noon the renewed order was promptly commu- 
nicated to the troops concerned, without any manner 
prescribed of executing it. It was found that at this 
same instant the enemy, after having failed in several 
attempts, came out in force from a ravine where he had 
rallied his forces, and advanced to retake the crater. 
In a moment it was a general devil take the Jiindmost, 
a confused rush, in which those who could run fast 
enough and escape the rebel fire returned to our lines. 
Those who endeavored to resist, or were delayed, were 
taken prisoners. 

Thus passed away the finest opportunity which could 
have been given us to capture Petersburg, since the 
day when General W. F. Smith had presented himself 
in front of it before the arrival of the troops of General 
Lee. This terrible fiasco cost us forty-four hundred 
men, much more, certainly, than a complete success 
would have done, if the operation had been conducted as 
it should have been, and if the Ninth Corps had fought 
as it ought to have fought. All the supporting troops 
found themselves in a situation in which it was not 
possible to do anything. The Eighteenth Corps had 
not an opportunity to move. A few regiments passed 
beyond the abandoned intrenchments, to take posses- 
sion of the skirmishers' rifle-pits, where they held their 
position with difficulty for a short time. Ayres' divis- 
ion of the Fifth Corps, massed on the left, stood with 
its arms ready, with no opportunity to use them. 

The enfemy did not withdraw a man from in front of 
Mott's division, to assist in repelling the assault. It 
was not necessary. General Hancock, nevertheless, 
wished to be certain of the fact, and ordered a demon- 
stration on the front of each brigade. It was sufficient 
for one of my regiments to leap over the parapet, to 
draw out a vofley, which cut down one officer and fif- 



62 2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

teen men. Colonel McAllister resorted to a ruse. He 
caused the bugle to be sounded, and at the order " For- 
ward ! " his men, as arranged beforehand, showed their 
caps on the points of their bayonets, above the intrench- 
ments. The fire drawn by this trick left no doubt as 
to the presence of the rebels in force in that part of 
their lines. 

A double investigation of this unfortunate affair was 
made — one by the Congressional committee, the other 
by a court of inquiry. The conclusions drawn by the 
two bodies were very different. The Congressional 
committee declared : — 

•' That, in its opinion, the cause of the disastrous 
result of the assault of July 30 ought mainly to be 
attributed to the fact that the plans and suggestions of 
the general (Burnside) who had devoted his attention 
so long to this subject, who had brought the project of 
mining the enemy's works to a favorable issue, and who 
had chosen and drilled his troops with care, to assure 
every advantage which could be drawn from the explo- 
sion of the mine, had been completely put aside by a gen- 
eral (Meade) who had shown no confidence in the work 
while it was going on, who had given it no assistance 
or declared approval, and who had assumed entire direc- 
tion and control of it only when it had been completed, 
and the time arrived to reap all the advantages which 
could be derived from it." 

The court of inquiry was in somewhat of a delicate 
position. It was composed of General Hancock, presi- 
dent, and of General Ayres of the Fifth Corps, and Gen- 
eral Miles of the Second Corps. The judge-advocate, 
or, to speak more accurately, the reporter, was Colonel 
Schriver, attached as inspector-general to the army 
staff. I am very far from wishing to throw any doubt 
on the impartiality of any member of the court of 



THE MINE. 623 

inquiry, but they might have been called upon, under 
certain circumstances, officially to censure the conduct 
of their general-in-chief, a position somewhat embar- 
rassing for an inferior in regard to a superior. Their 
inquiry, moreover, conducted from a point of view en- 
tirely practical, was more particularly directed to find- 
ing out the facts than the original causes. From their 
report the causes of the want of success were as 
follows : — 

" First, the want of judgment in the formation of the 
troops to advance, the movement having been made 
mostly by the flank instead of by the front. General 
Meade's order directed that columns of assault should 
be employed to take the cemetery hill, and that suitable 
passages through our works should be prepared for 
them. The opinion of the court is that, properly 
speaking, no columns of assault were formed. The 
troops should have been formed on the open ground in 
front of the point of attack, and parallel to the line of 
the enemy's works. The witnesses prove that one or 
several columns could have passed by the crater, and by 
its left, without any previous preparation of the ground ; 
second, the stopping of the troops at the crater instead 
of advancing to the crest, although at the time the fire 
of the enemy was of no importance ; third, the poor 
use made of officers of pioneers, of working parties, and 
of materials and tools for their service in the Ninth 
Corps ; fourth, certain portions of the assaulting col- 
umns were not suitably led ; fifth, the lack of a compe- 
tent leader of high rank on the scene of operations, to 
order matters according as circumstances demanded. 

" If failure had not resulted from the above causes, 
and if the crest had been occupied, success would still 
have been put in jeopardy, from not having prepared in 
time, in the lines of the Ninth Corps, suitable de- 



624 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

bouches for the troops, and especially for the light 
artillery, as prescribed by the orders of General 
Meade." 

In conclusion, the court of inquiry ascribed the direct 
responsibility of the failure to General Burnside, com- 
manding the Ninth Corps, Generals Ledlie, Ferrero, 
and Wilcox, commanding the First, the Fourth, and 
the Third Divisions, and Colonel Bliss, commanding 
the First Brigade of the Second Division ; specifying 
the portion of blame and the responsibility attaching to 
each. 

In comparing these two verdicts, one can easily see 
that, if they differ from each other, they are not contra- 
dictory. Either may be right without the other being 
wrong. The committee of Congress, composed of mem- 
bers who were not at all military men, did not enter 
into questions of detail, but paid attention principally 
to the primary causes. The court of inquiry, on the 
contrary, being composed of military men, did not go 
back to the original causes, but applied itself exclu- 
sively to considering the question from a military point 
of view. 

Between the two conclusions, the first, the greatest, 
the true cause found no place. The committee could 
not have known it ; the court of inquiry found no place 
for it. This cause, to which all the others were subsidi- 
ary, I have already indicated : it was the employment of 
the Ninth Corps to lead the assault. Had it been left in 
the trenches with the Eighteenth Corps, and had the 
Second and Fifth been put irt advance, Petersburg was 
ours on the 30th of July, before noon. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

SUMMER HARVESTS. 

General theory of the siege of Petersburg— The pick and the musket- 
Second expedition to Deep Bottom — Death of Colonel Chaplain — 
The trials of a regiment — The mark of death — Presentiments — 
Return to the trenches — Contest for the Weldon railroad — General 
Warren's succees — Unfortunate affair of General Hancock at Ream's 
Station — Fort Hell — Origin of the name — Nocturnal coup de main 
— Muskets, cannons, and mortars — Southern deserters — Victories of 
Sheridan, Sherman, and Farragut. 

The unfortunate affair of July 30 closed the series of 
direct attacks against Petersburg. They had cost us 
more than twenty thousand men. It was full time to 
adopt a different method. So that, after that, opera- 
tions were exclusively directed against the communica- 
tions remaining open between the city and the South, 
The communications were three in number: the Wel- 
don railroad, the Boydton plank road, and the Lynch- 
burg railroad. I cite them in the order in which they 
occurred on our left. As they diverged more and more 
from each other as their distance from the city in- 
creased, the constant effort of the enemy was to keep 
our lines at as great a distance as possible from the 
city. The result of this was that, instead of simply 
covering Petersburg by a semi-circular line of defences, 
resting on the Appomattox at its two extremities, the 
enemy pushed his intrenchments in a concave line more 
than seven miles from the city, on Hatcher's Run, a 
creek which was found to play an important part in the 
last operations of the campaign. 

This explains the fact, apparently strange, why the 

625 



62 6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMV. 

nearer we approached our end the further we were 
from the place we were trying to capture. To every 
movement for extending our lines, we found a corre- 
sponding extension of the enemy's lines already made 
in the same direction. Their lines were always stretched 
out to extend beyond our left, the more effectually to 
cover the Boydton road, and especially to keep us as far 
as possible from the Lynchburg railroad, the last 
line of supplies remaining to Lee's army except via 
Richmond. 

It will be easily seen that the longer the lines were 
stretched out the less was the proportional number of 
the troops to defend them. A portion behind which 
had at first been massed an army corps we now occu- 
pied by a division, and the space formerly occupied by a 
division must now be left to a brigade. To enable us to 
do this, and prevent all surprise, it was necessary to 
materially strengthen the intrenchments. On both 
sides enormous works were made. The troops ceased 
fighting only to fortify themselves, and the musket 
was laid down only to take up the pick. So that, 
finally, the two armies faced each other by a very for- 
midable front of closed redoubts, redans, demi-lunes, 
and batteries. These works, not far apart, were con- 
nected by a continuous curtain of intrenchments, pro- 
tected by chevaiix-de-frise, or abatis of branches of trees 
sharpened and bound together by iron wire. They 
supported each other and crossed their fire at all points. 

It became evident, after a while, that the question 
would necessarily be decided along Hatcher's Run, 
beyond the extreme Confederate right. They were 
therefore compelled to have a force constantly at their 
disposal, to defend themselves outside of their lines, as 
it was necessary for us to have one to attack them 
there. In this respect the advantage was entirely on 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 627 

our side, for, as I have elsewhere explained, Grant 
could always repair his losses, while Lee could no 
longer do so. The latter could hardly draw a man 
from the exhausted South ; the former had still vast 
resources in reserve, in the North, as witness the new 
levy of five hundred thousand men ordered by the 
President on July 18, in virtue of the power conferred 
on him by Congress. 

It will be now understood what was the object of the 
campaign during the last five months of 1864. After 
having given this general view, I will resume the narra- 
tive of the successive operations by means of which 
the result was accomplished. 

We have seen, by the last expedition to Deep Bot- 
tom, that Grant could, at will, force his opponent to 
strip his lines in front of Petersburg. It was sufficient 
foi*him to throw a corps on the left bank of the James 
for Lee to immediately divide his forces, and send a 
part to that side. It must be borne in mind that Deep 
Bottom was only ten miles from Richmond ; that, if the 
first defences were forced, the bridge of boats at 
Drury's Bluff, by which the Confederates communi- 
cated with the left bank, was lost, and, in that case, we 
could reach their capital without their having any way 
of opposing us. So that they were compelled, what- 
ever they did, to hurry to Chapin's Bluff, to oppose any 
menace of an advance in that direction. Grant then 
pushed his extreme left towards new positions to oc- 
cupy, and of these two simultaneous attacks, made 
twenty miles apart, one or the other must succeed. In 
this manner the Weldon railroad was taken. 

This time, however, the expedition to the north of 
the James was made on a much larger scale than the 
former one. General Grant provided for the chance 
that Lee might send insufficient forces to protect his 



628 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

lines to the north of the James, in order to better pro- 
tect the railroad. In that case, the demonstration would 
be changed to a serious attack against Richmond. 
Accordingly, the Tenth Corps was added to the Second, 
as well as a division of cavalry, the whole under the 
command of General Hancock. 

On the 1 2th of August, at two o'clock in the after- 
noon, we set out, under a torrid sun and stifling heat, 
for City Point, where we arrived in the evening. Our 
ulterior destination had been kept secret. In order to 
deceive the enemy, the next morning we embarked on 
steam transports, which descended the river a short 
distance, and then halted, as if to wait for troops de- 
layed. It was generally supposed that we were going 
further. We were deceived ourselves. But at nine 
o'clock in the evening, when it had become dark, all the 
steamers turned about and ascended the river. When 
we passed by City Point, every one understood that we 
were bound for Deep Bottom. 

At daylight my brigade debarked the first near the 
bridge of boats, over which, at that moment, was defil- 
ing our artillery, coming by way of Bermuda Hundred, 
and also our wagons and ambulances. We advanced 
immediately upon the woods where, a fortnight before, 
Miles had captured a battery from the enemy. Four of 
my regiments cleaned out the thickets, driving before 
them the enemy's skirmishers, while with six others I 
established my force in some works thrown up the 
month previous by the First Division. The latter, 
which had had some difficulty in debarking, joined us 
shortly after, and took position on our right. It was to 
attack the enemy in the fortified position which had 
once before stopped us behind Bailey's Creek. 

In consequence of delays in debarking, the attack 
could not be made until five o'clock in the afternoon, 



.SUMMER HARVESTS. 629 

which deprived it of all the advantages of a surprise. 
At that instant a violent storm broke forth, so that the 
thunder, together with the artillery and infantry fire, 
made a fine racket ; unfortunately, more noise than any- 
thing else. Barlow having assaulted with a brigade con- 
taining in its ranks many new recruits. Night came on 
without our having gained any other advantage than that 
of drawing to that point the greater part of the enemy's 
forces, which enabled General Birney, now command- 
ing the Tenth Corps, to capture four guns on another 
part of the line. 

The 15 th passed away in vain efforts to turn the Con- 
federate left. The Tenth Corps, supported by the 
cavalry, was charged with this movement. As a reen- 
forcement, the second brigade of our division had been 
placed under the orders of General Birney. Finally, to 
aid his success by a diversion, Mott was ordered to 
make a false attack on the enemy's right. Our line 
had been considerably advanced since the evening. It 
extended now to the foot of a cleared hill, the summit 
of which was occupied by the rebels. Along my front 
were some fields of corn, the stalks still standing. I 
threw forward a few regiments, which drove back the 
enemy's skirmishers, and drew towards this point a 
brisk fire both of artillery and musketry, without, how- 
ever, doing us much damage. The demonstration was 
renewed in the afternoon, but the hours passed away 
without anything being heard from the right, and the 
second day brought us no better results than the first. 

It was then decided that Birney, not having been 
able to turn the enemy's left, should attack in his front 
the next morning. During the night, our troops were 
disposed to act according to circumstances. In the 
morning, the rifle-pits were carried at a dash, and 
Terry's division penetrated the intrenchments, where it 



630 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

captured several hundred prisoners and three flags. 
But the necessary reenforcement had long before 
reached the enemy. He took the offensive in his turn, 
and recovered the lost ground. Our second brigade 
took a very active part in the engagement, in which 
Colonel Craig, commanding it, was killed. It is always 
a thankless mission to have to reenforce a corps in 
action. The general commanding on the ground 
gladly seizes the opportunity to spare his own troops at 
the expense of the troops assisting, and, in fine, the lat- 
ter finish generally by having a greater share in the 
blows given than in the honors of the combat. 

General Gregg, at the head of the cavalry, had the 
same fortune as General Birney. Supported by Miles' 
brigade, he drove back the enemy on the Charles City 
road, and was afterward driven back in his turn, losing 
all the ground he had gained. 

Along my front, action was limited to skirmishers' 
fire and demonstrations, in one of which the Twentieth 
Indiana captured two enormous mortars, which the 
enemy had been compelled to abandon on our left. 
These mortars had been placed there to fire their fif- 
teen-inch shells at our gunboats. All around were 
magazines dug in the ground, full of ammunition. It 
being impossible to transport the ammunition, we blew 
it up, which was done without accident. General 
Chambliss, commanding a rebel brigade, had been killed 
in the morning. He was buried in our lines, but I have 
never known how his body happened to be there. 

On the morning of the 17th, Colonel Chaplain, com- 
manding the First Regiment of Maine artillery, was 
mortally wounded on my picket line. This regiment 
was one of those which had been sent from Washington 
to reenforce the army during the first part of the cam- 
paign, and which had so brilliantly distinguished it- 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 63 I 

self in its first engagement at Spottsylvania. It was 
then sixteen hundred strong. It lost more than a quar- 
ter in that affair. The baptism of fire cost it dearly. 
Arrived in front of Petersburg, there were still more 
than a thousand men in its ranks, when, on the i6th of 
June, it received an order to charge the enemy's in- 
trenchments at the front, where Fort Stedman was 
afterward built. The assault had no possible chance of 
success. It had to cross an open space, three times as 
great as that generally assigned to charges of this sort. 
Nevertheless, these brave men advanced in good order, 
with their guns on their shoulders, closing their ranks 
cut up by shell and musketry. They went as far as it 
was possible to go, melting away to the sight, in a 
stream of blood, and strewing the ground with their 
dead and wounded. They were soon forced to halt. 
They started out more than a thousand, they returned 
less than four hundred. The affair lasted from twelve 
to fifteen minutes. The enemy had not lost a man, 
while they left behind them more than six hundred, of 
whom thirty were officers. 

These deplorable mistakes took place only too often 
during the war. It may have been that a corps com- 
mander too readily accepted the erroneous report of a 
volunteer officer of his staff. Eager for success, he 
gave the order to charge, without himself verifying the 
condition of affairs. The general of division has not 
always the moral courage to venture to object to such 
an order. The brigade commander, clearly seeing that 
it is a question of the useless destruction of one or more 
of his regiments, can take it upon himself to comment 
upon it to his immediate superior, who will probably 
reply : — "I know that as well as you do ; but what 
can I do about it ? The order is peremptory ; it must 
be obeyed." It is obeyed, and a regiment is massacred. 



632 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Colonel Chaplain escaped in the butchery ; but it 
struck him a mortal blow, from which he did not re- 
cover. His men belonged to the same neighborhood 
with him. He had organized them ; he had led them 
from the forests of Maine. They were his great family. 
When he saw them sacrificed under his eyes by a fan- 
tasy as deadly as useless, a melancholy discouragement 
took hold on him. Sombre presentiments besieged 
him. He was surrounded by phantoms. He answered 
to the call on August 17, when the ball of a rebel skir- 
misher struck him down on my picket line. 

I regretted his death without being surprised at it, as 
I expected it. He was a doomed man to me from the 
first day I had seen him on taking command of the 
brigade. I designate in this way those on whom death 
has put his mark beforehand. If you ask me in what 
consists this mark, I would find it difficult to reply. 
One can scarcely define what is almost indefinable, a 
thing which is felt rather than perceived. This fatal 
seal is imprinted rather on the general manner than on 
the features. Its imprint is fugitive, and yet appears 
sometimes in the looks, at the bottom of which one 
divines the trembling of the soul soon about to depart ; 
sometimes in the smile, in which appear the fleeting 
shadows of a cloud which does not belong to the earth ; 
sometimes in certain movements as if worn out, in cer- 
tain languid acts in which is betrayed the symptoms of 
a task which reaches its end. Sometimes, on the con- 
trary, the finger of death is shown by a feverish energy 
without reason, forced laughter, jerky movements. You 
perceive there a cord too tightly stretched, the vital 
cord, which must soon break. One would say that 
nature is expending hurriedly forces which are soon to 
become useless. 

I am far from contending that all those who are 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 633 

about to die are marked. On the contrary, the im- 
mense majority march on to death without the least 
previous indication of the fate awaiting them. I state 
only a fact which experience demonstrated to me ; 
namely, that a small number of men carry the unmis- 
takable mark of the near approach of the death await- 
ing them. I will also add that they are not themselves 
conscious of it, and that the number of those who can 
read these mysterious signs is very limited. Some- 
times, in the evening, in camp, I have tried to describe 
the mark to officers around me. I do not remember 
ever having convinced any one of the truth of my 
theory. 

One rainy day, I was conversing in my tent with 
Captain Wilson, assistant adjutant-general of my bri- 
gade. We were then marching on Fredericksburg. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Gilluly, commanding the Fifth 
Michigan, entered. He came simply on some detail 
of service, which was arranged in five minutes. When 
he had gone out, " Now," said I to my incredulous 
captain," here is an opportunity to make a trial of my 
theory. Colonel Gilluly is marked." 

The captain evidently thought nothing of it. But 
in the first battle Colonel Gilluly was killed before 
Fredericksburg, while bravely leading his regiment in a 
charge. 

Of all those on whom I have recognized the mark, — 
and they are many, — one only may have escaped death. 
He was the colonel of a Pennsylvania regiment. He 
was shot through the body, and lay for several weeks 
on the threshold of eternity. He had not recovered 
the last time I heard of him. 

This mark is entirely distinct from a presentiment. 
The latter is to the victim himself. It is an inexpli- 
cable revelation, but an acknowledged fact. There are 



634 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

SO many incontestable examples on record that it 
would be idle to add any more here. In my opinion, 
veritable presentiments announce death as certainly as 
the setting of the sun announces the coming of the 
night. Thank God, there are few organizations which 
are subject to it. People in general are not at all sus- 
ceptible to it. 

A sergeant had finished his three years of service 
before Petersburg. Not wishing to reenlist immedi- 
ately, he took his discharge, and, his own master hence- 
forth, he bade good-bye to his comrades, the last even- 
ing he was to remain in camp. During the night came 
an order to prepare for an attack. At daylight the 
regiment was in line. 

" Well ! " exclaimed the sergeant, gayly, " it shall not 
be said that the regiment went into a charge under my 
eyes witj^jput my accompanying it." 

He grasped a musket, and took his place in the 
ranks, and was killed. It was the last thing in the 
world of which he thought. 

I return to my brigade, which I left skirmishing with 
the enemy on Bailey's Creek. 

The firing soon ceased on both sides, in consequence 
of a truce of some hours, to bury the dead and to take 
off the wounded. During this time a rainstorm de- 
scended impartially on both Federals and Confederates. 
Thunder took the place of the artillery, and the wind 
roared in the great sonorous pines above the heads of 
our regiments, poorly sheltered at their feet. Night came 
on without any mingling of firing in this aerial concert. 

The rain continued to fall during the greater part of 
the next day (the i8th). Towards five o'clock in the 
afternoon, the artillery gave a signal of a new engage- 
ment. This time it was the enemy who took the offen- 
sive against the Tenth Corps. In a few moments, 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 635 

great cheering announced a charge in force in that 
direction. The firing soon became very violent, and, 
from one to another, soon extended to my Hne. The 
rebels exactly repeated on us what we had tried on 
them : an attack on the right, and demonstrations on 
the left. The attempt did not succeed on either side. 
Repulsed with loss everywhere, they retired to their 
lines much faster than they had come out of them. 

Two hours later. General Mott received orders to 
immediately return to Petersburg with his division. It 
was a night of marching, in place of a night of sleep, on 
which we had counted. We understood that something 
new had happened on the Weldon railroad, and we 
marched rapidly towards Bermuda Hundred. General 
Hancock kept the rest of his forces two days longer to 
the north of the James, in order to compel the enemy 
not to withdraw from there. His expedition against 
Richmond having failed, it was to be hoped that the 
effort of Warren, at the other extremity of our lines, 
would succeed. 

That was, in fact, the result. Our division, being 
the strongest in the Second Corps, had been recalled 
from Deep Bottom to relieve the Ninth Corps in 
the trenches, and allow it to join the Fifth Corps 
in the desperate fight in which it was engaged. The 
day before General Warren had succeeded, without 
much difficulty, in reaching the railroad which it was 
designed to take from the enemy. But, as soon as he 
tried to march towards Petersburg, he met a large force 
of the enemy in line of battle, to dispute the ground 
with him. The fight began immediately. A flank at- 
tack thr«w Warren's left division in disorder ; but the 
line was promptly rectified, and finally he remained 
master of the position, where, during the night, he 
besan to cover his front with intrenchments. 



6^6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 



'O 



However, the railroad was of so much importance to 
the enemy that he made desperate efforts to recover 
possession of it. General Lee sent all the forces he 
could draw from his lines, and, on the next day (the 
19th), a violent attack broke in Warren's right, driving 
back Crawford's division, and threatened to roll up the 
whole corps. But, while falling back, the troops con- 
tinued an obstinate resistance, and, although more than 
two thousand had fallen into the hands of the enemy, 
they succeeded in holding possession of the railroad 
until the arrival of two divisions of the Ninth Corps. 
Relieved then from the terrible pressure which it had 
found so difficult to resist, Warren immediately resumed 
the offensive. The Confederates, in their turn, sub- 
jected to an attack on two sides, gave way and regained 
their intrenchments in full flight. 

General Warren was not deceived by the inaction of 
the enemy during the 20th. He profited by it to fortify 
his position and prepare for a new attack, for which, 
indeed, he did not have long to wait. It was made on 
the 2ist. The Confederates had, in the first place, 
struck the left of the Fifth Corps, and then the right. 
They could now try only the front, which they did. 
Supported by a strong artillery fire, they charged reso- 
lutely but unsuccessfully. A united move on our left 
was still worse for them. On that side, Warren had 
disposed his troops in echelon. The enemy's column 
was cut to pieces, and the remnant escaped only after 
leaving five hundred prisoners in our hands. This 
decisive success secured us from that time undisputed 
possession of the Weldon railroad. We had paid a good 
price for it, in the loss of four thousand men. # 

The morning of the victory gained by General War- 
ren, General Hancock arrived from Deep Bottom with 
his two divisions. He was immediately sent to take 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 637 

position in rear of the Fifth Corps, and, as the enemy 
acknowledged his defeat. General Hancock received the 
mission to destroy the track as far as Rowanty Creek, 
ten to twelve miles in onr rear. 

The First Division was now commanded by General 
Miles. General Barlow, who had been twice severely 
wounded, and whose health was seriously affected by 
the fatigues of the last campaign, had received leave of 
absence for six or eight months, to go to Europe to 
reestablish it. The Second Division remained under 
command of General Gibbon. 

The troops of these two divisions followed up their 
work of the destruction of the railroad without hin- 
drance as far as Ream's Station, five or six miles from 
the Fifth Corps. There were some intrenchments 
which had been thrown up before, where Miles es- 
tablished' himself on the 24th, while Gibbon continued 
to destroy the railroad towards Rowanty Creek. The 
cavalry having then given notice of the approach of a 
large body of rebels, Hancock recalled bis Second 
Division, and awaited the attack with his forces united 
behind the intrenchments. The enemy charged twice 
on Miles' division, which held the right, and was twice 
repulsed with considerable loss. 

This double repulse shook the assailants, but only 
irritated their commander. Gen. A. P. Hill, who was 
resolved to succeed over forces much inferior to his own 
and separated from the rest of the army. He opened 
the third attack by an increased fire from all his guns, 
and pushed forward Heth's division to assault in col- 
umn. At this charge he broke the line, and, getting 
inside, threw the whole into confusion. Gibbon's 
division, still in posilion, might restore affairs, or at 
least prevent a rout. But Gibbon's division had in its 
ranks a large number of conscripts and substitutes 



638 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

recently arrived in the army. The greater part of 
them were miserable cowards, compelled to serve in 
Spite of themselves, or tempted to enlist by the allure- 
ments of a large bounty. When Hancock gave the 
order to charge the enemy and retake the twelve guns 
already captured, it was impossible to make them move. 
They cowered down under the shelter of the works, 
sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, think- 
ing only to shelter themselves from the firing, and they 
finished by allowing themselves to be captured in a 
mass, without making the least resistance. The remain- 
der of the division, demoralized by such a miserable 
defection, made a very poor figure. If they fought at 
all, it was so little, or so poorly that it is not worth 
mentioning. 

In contrast with this poltroonery, the cavalry which 
accompanied the expedition fought, dismounted, with 
great bravery, and delayed the progress of the enemy 
by its efforts. At the same time. Miles, with intrepid 
coolness, was everywhere rallying his regiments. He 
thus succeeded in bringing back two or three, with 
which he retook three guns, and formed the nucleus of 
a new line, to which the others rallied. 

In the night Hancock withdrew, with a loss of twenty- 
four hundred men. Hill, on his side, retreated at the 
same time. His losses in the two first attacks had been 
very heavy ; but he carried off as trophies nine guns 
and seventeen hundred prisoners. This unfortunate 
affair of Ream's Station deeply tarnished the honor of 
the Second Division, without elevating that of the 
First. It brought Miles, who had distinguished himself 
very much, the commission of major-general. 

During these different engagements we had remained 
in the trenches, except MacAllister's brigade, sent to 
Hancock's assistance, and which, in consequence of a 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 639 

mistake in the orders received while on the road, had 
not been able to arrive in time. My front extended 
from the cut of the Norfolk railroad to the Jerusalem 
plank road. It included on the right a closed work, 
called Fort Rice, in the centre several batteries of 
cannon and mortars, and on the left a work already 
quite large, and which was to be made much larger. 
According to the rule adopted, to give to each separate 
work the name of a superior officer killed on the field of 
battle, this work was officially baptized, " Fort Sedg- 
wick." But before that it had already received a pop- 
ular baptism. In the army and throughout the country 
it was known as " Fort Hell," and no other name was 
ever given to it except in official reports.' 

It has always been supposed — and that very natu- 
rally — that this name arose from the fact that, being 
the point where the lines were nearest each other, it 
was where the fire was hottest. But I have heard 
another explanation given. At the time when it was 
only sketched out as a battery, an officer commanding 
the working details had thought to give it his own 
name, and, of his own authority, had hung up on a 
tree a paper to that effect. A general officer, happen- 
ing to pass along that way, saw with surprise the name 
of this unknown person, and said, as if he had read it 
incorrectly, " Fort — what is that ? " he called out. 
The matter was explained to him. When, as a com- 
mentary, he shrugged his shoulders and said, " Fort 
Hell ! " and passed on. The word, strongly uttered, 
was heard by a few soldiers, who did not allow it to be 

' The word /le// in English is much more forcible than the word t'>i/er 
in French. It carries with it the idea of an oath, on which account the 
strictly pious are scandalized in hearing it, and, in order to express the 
sense, the ladies have recourse to a periphrase. On that account it is 
popular among the soldiers. 



640 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

forgotten. It had an enthusiastic success. From the 
Fifth Corps it spread through the army ; from the 
army amongst the people, by means of the correspond- 
ents of the newspapers. Fort Hell it was, and Fort 
Hell it remained until the last. 

Any way, whatever was the origin of the name, it 
was fully deserved. It was across the Jerusalem plank 
road, where the intrenched picket line of the enemy 
was thrown forward to a ruined house, of which but two 
chimneys remained standing. The rise of ground on 
which were those ruins was less than a hundred yards 
from the fort, which compelled us to keep our rifle-pits 
for our pickets at the foot of the epaulements in the 
abatis. Those of the enemy were in front of tht 
chimneys, so near to us that, in case of an attack, our 
cannoneers would have had much trouble to save their 
pieces. It is true that for the present the traditions 
of the Fifth Corps were kept by us, so that not a shot 
was fired on either side. The good understanding be- 
tween the pickets went so far that during the evenings 
there was a regular trading of the tobacco of the Confed- 
erates for the coffee of the Federals. Coffee was an 
abundant and daily ration for our men. To the South- 
ern soldier, who had had none since the war began, it 
was a delicious luxury. They met each other without 
arms, in a little ravine near a spring from which they 
drank in 'common. They traded the New York for the 
Richmond journals, and often they drank their coffee 
together, while making their barter. The most severe 
orders were necessary to suppress those polite atten- 
tions, and break up these clandestine meetings. 

But firing might begin at any moment, and I some- 
times thought it would be better for us to open first. 
The presence of the enemy's pickets so close to us as 
the chimneys offered serious inconveniences and real 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 64 1 

dangers. After an examination of the position, I came 
to the conclusion that I could carry the picket line by a 
coup de main, if General Hancock would let me do it. 
I spoke of it to General Mott, who immediately ap- 
proved of the idea. I took him over the ground to ex- 
plain my plan, and he agreed to make the proposal. On 
September 8, General Hancock came himself to pass 
along my line and examine the point of attack. The 
dispositions which I had submitted to him were ap- 
proved ; the execution was fixed for the night of the 
9th to the loth. 

I chose, for this night surprise, three of my regi- 
ments. On the left of the fort, the Twentieth Indiana, 
Colonel Meikel, was to form in mass, without noise, 
behind a swell of ground, to charge from there with the 
bayonet upon the whole salient part of the enemy's 
picket line covering the destroyed house. On his left, 
the Second Battalion of sharpshooters was to sweep 
the rifle-pit as far as a marked point, reverse the works, 
and connect that point by new pits to the end of a piece 
of woods already occupied by our pickets. To the right 
of the road, the Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania, Colonel 
Biles, was to do the same thing for the other end of 
the line. By capturing from the enemy this salient 
curve of his pickets, we threw him back to his natural 
position, and established ours parallel to our principal 
line. The two colonels charged with the enterprise 
were the only persons intrusted with the secret, when, 
during the day, I verbally informed them of my inten- 
tions. Not till ten o'clock in the evening did I send 
them, in confidence, written orders to take their com- 
mands to the points selected. The remainder of the 
brigade was under arms, in perfect silence, without 
knowing what was to be done. 

A little before midnight, I left General Mott at my 



642 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

headquarters, and went out on the line with my staff 
officers. I found every one there behind the parapets, 
with fires out. They were awaiting the hour appointed 
for moving, which was one o'clock in the morning. 

The moon had been down for an hour ; the darkness 
was profound ; there was complete silence along the 
whole line, and the fires of the enemy's pickets were 
gradually being extinguished. Soon a black mass in 
motion was dimly seen in front of the fort. Suddenly 
a shot, followed by twenty others, lighted up the rifle- 
pits. A dull sound of the feet of men charging on the 
run, — a clamor formed by a thousand cries, — voices 
threatening, furious, frightened, mingling with the 
crackling of musketry fire, — confused sounds of fight- 
ing hand to hand, — the thunders of artillery above all 
the rest, — all this filled the air at once. 

Is was the affair of a quarter of an hour. The enemy, 
surprised, overwhelmed by the human torrent which 
rushed upon him, gave way, and abandoned to us, not 
only the section attacked, but still more of his line, 
both to the right and to the left. The works were 
quickly turned by the companies provided with picks 
and shovels, and we were solidly established in the 
rifle-pits, which the enemy was not able to recapture 
from us. 

Colonel Meikel was among the killed. He was a 
young officer of great merit and daring bravery. His 
loss was keenly felt in the brigade, and amongst all 
who had been brought in contact with him. 

From that night on, there was no longer any ques- 
tion of truce or polite attentions between the two lines. 
There was, on the contrary, a fusillade a outrance, 
which hindered us very much the following night about 
completing the connection of our works. The work 
could be completed only by rolling up large gabions to 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 643 

cover those of the working party who were not pro- 
tected by deep enough trenches. Evidently, the enemy 
took very much to heart what he called " a Yankee 
trick played by a Frenchman." It was not possible to 
go around inside of our works without danger. I lost 
twenty-two men there in one day. All the embrasures 
had to be masked by thick curtains, which were only 
opened at the time of firing. A cap could not be shown 
anywhere above the parapet without instantly drawing 
a ball, for the sharpshooters on both sides were of dan- 
gerous address. I saw a sergeant killed near me, while 
looking between the gabions. The ball struck him 
above the eyes. 

Then, indeed, did Fort Hell fully justify its name. 
When the artillery fire opened, although I had twenty- 
four guns and eight mortars along my front in batteries, 
the fire of the enemy was concentrated preferably on 
Fort Hell. The regiments occupying the fort protected 
themselves well enough against the shells by means of 
broad trenches roofed over with logs, whose slope was 
covered with beaten earth to the depth of two or three 
feet. But it was not sufificient protection against mor- 
tar shells. These projectiles, of an enormous weight, 
falling vertically from a great height, broke through 
everything ; where they burst amongst the soldiers 
they might work great destruction, which happened 
two or three times. So that, as soon as a mortar shell 
was noted, night or day, the men came out of their 
bomb-proofs, and, with eyes aloft, watched the course 
of the projectile. They were able to calculate exactly 
the place where it was about to fall, and, in a few leaps, 
protected themselves against all danger from its explo- 
sion. When the mortar fire ceased, they returned to 
their bomb-proofs. 

In artillery firing, our gunners were notably superior 



644 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

to those of the enemy. The field batteries had been 
reduced from six guns to four. I had several batteries 
on my line, and I have often been a witness to the 
remarkable accuracy of their fire. I have seen " with 
my own eyes " a lieutenant of the Third New York 
Independent battery, named Fitz Gerald, knock down a 
rebel flag three times in six shots, at a distance of six 
hundred and forty yards, with a twelve-pounder, smooth- 
bored gun, loaded with solid shot. 

My headquarters resembled a small intrenched camp. 
It lay in rear of a covered way, in a bunch of pines, 
which overlooked the brigade lines. The enemy was 
often pleased to send us there a few shots, and the 
musket balls were striking against the trees from 
morning to night, and especially from night to morn- 
ing. So that we were compelled to protect our tents, 
those of the pioneers, and the horse sheds, by high 
parapets, which reduced the number of accidents to 
an insignificant figure. 

The exchange of musketry and artillery firing con- 
tinued, without interruption, during the month of 
September. On two or three occasions the pickets 
endeavored to put a stop to it, and renew the pacific 
bearing and peaceful intercourse interrupted by the 
nocturnal coup de main against the chimneys. But the 
Confederate officers would only permit a half-hour of 
truce daily, at sundown, the time of relieving pickets on 
both sides. Their main object in keeping up this con- 
tinual firing was to stop, as much as possible, the 
desertion which was thinning their ranks in a ratio 
more and more disquieting. There was not a night 
when some of their men did not come into my lines, 
either singly or by squads. The greater part were 
Floridians, belonging to the troops of General Finni- 
gan ; so many that, one evening, some of my advanced 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 645 

posts perpetrated the joke of sending my compli- 
ments to the Florida general, with a request to come 
over and take command of his brigade, the greater part 
of whom were on our side. 

These desertions, which took place more or less on 
the different points where the proximity of the two 
lines and the shape of the ground furnished more easy 
opportunities, were caused less perhaps from the wear- 
ing effect, physically, of the laborious service around 
Petersburg, than from the moral discouragement aris- 
ing from our great successes on all other points. 

On August 7 General Sheridan had taken the place 
of General Hunter, in the command of the military 
department, including all the troops, in the vicinity of 
Washington. Outside of the garrisons, he had under 
his orders the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps, to whom 
must be added the troops of Western Virginia, and 
two divisions of cavalry, sent from the Army of the 
Potomac. These forces, united, made up an army of 
thirty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. 

Sheridan had at first to obey his instructions, which 
directed him to keep on the defensive, to cover Mary- 
land and Pennsylvania, which Early continued to 
threaten. But soon the necessity of driving back the 
enemy far from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad be- 
came so manifest that General Grant decided to go 
and see his lieutenant, in order to judge for himself 
what the chances of success were for an offensive 
movement. " I visited General Sheridan at Charles- 
town " (near Harper's Ferry), "and he showed me so 
clearly the position of the two armies, and what he 
proposed to do, the instant he was authorized to do it ; 
he expressed such entire confidence in success, that I 
saw clearly that there was nothing to say to him, and 
the only orders I gave him were, ' Go in ! ' " And he 



646 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

did go in, so successfully that the lieutenant-general has 
never thereafter had any need of visiting him before 
giving him orders. 

On September 19 Sheridan attacked the enemy 
near Winchester, and, after a desperate battle, carried 
the position, and remained master of the ground, with 
two thousand five hundred prisoners, five guns, and 
nine colors. General Russell, commanding a divis- 
ion of the Sixth Corps, was killed in the battle, 
while on the enemy's side fell Generals Rodes and 
Godwin. 

Early, beaten at Winchester, retreated thirty miles 
up the valley, and took position at Fisher's Hill, where 
Sheridan quickly followed him. On the 22d, the posi- 
tion, although very strong, was carried by assault. 
The Confederates, in full rout, left in the hands of the 
victor sixteen pieces of artillery and a large number of 
prisoners. Sheridan pursued with great vigor beyond 
Harrisonburg and Staunton to the passes in the Blue 
Ridge. He returned to take position behind Cedar 
Creek, after having completely destroyed the provisions 
and forage in that part of the valley and the country 
around, in order to deprive the enemy of the large 
amount of supplies which he had up to that time drawn 
from there, and to prevent his being able to subsist his 
army there in the future. The destruction embraced 
more than two thousand barns full of grain and forage, 
and more than seventy mills full of wheat and flour. 
Four thousand head of cattle were driven off by the 
troops, and three thousand sheep were issued as 
rations. 

I will add here, in order not to return to the subject 
further on, that. Early having undertaken to resume 
the offensive on October 9, his cavalry, beaten and 
pursued by ours, lost in the attempt eleven pieces of 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 64? 

artillery and three hundred and fifty prisoners. Finally, 
on the 19th of the same month, the enemy, having been 
reenforced by a division of infantry and six hundred 
horsemen, succeeded, by a night march, and favored 
by a thick fog, in turning the left of our position on 
Cedar Creek. The surprise was complete. At day- 
light our left and centre, attacked unexpectedly, were 
compelled to fall back in confusion, protected, however, 
by the Sixth Corps, which, being on the right, had been 
able to form hastily, and which now retreated in good 
order. 

General Sheridan was at this time absent, at Win- 
chester. He was returning, on horseback, when the 
sound of artillery firing reached his ears, and caused 
him to hasten his pace to the utmost of his horse's 
speed. Towards ten o'clock, between Newtown and 
Middletown, he found his army rallied and his lines 
being reformed in a good position, thanks to the ener- 
getic and judicious measures of General Wright, who 
commanded in his absence. His presence was enough 
to restore to his troops both ardor and confidence. He 
rode along the lines, received everywhere with enthu- 
siasm, and, almost without modifying the dispositions 
made by his lieutenant, he gave orders to renew the 
battle. 

Ashamed of their rout of the morning, and burn- 
ing to make amends, the troops charged on the enemy 
with irresistible force. They carried everything before 
them, chased the enemy through Middletown, and did 
not halt in the pursuit, with the bayonet at his flanks, 
until they had retaken all the ground lost in the morn- 
ing. Besides the guns captured by him in the morning. 
Early lost twenty-three others in the afternoon, so that 
really, in the afternoon battle, he lost forty-one pieces 
of artillery. Our cavalry continued to harass his 



648 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

routed columns as far as Mount Jackson, increasing 
hourly the number of prisoners, already great, and cap- 
turing a large part of the wagon train. 

This brilliant victory put an end to the diversions of 
the enemy in the Shenandoah valley. The remains of 
Early's corps were recalled to Petersburg, and the 
Sixth Corps was able to retake its position with the 
Army of the Potomac. Two more divisions were de- 
tached from Sheridan's army, one to reenforce General 
Butler, and the other to occupy Savannah when Sher- 
man should arrive there. 

General Sherman had in his field pursued the unin- 
terrupted series of his successes. By a course of able 
manoeuvres and brilliant battles he had reached Atlanta, 
where his victorious forces had entered the city on 
September 2. This was, as all knew, the objective 
point of his campaign. There he was master of a net- 
work of railroads of vital importance to the enemy. 
The different lines were destroyed by his cavalry. 
At this time he gave his army two months in which 
to rest, before leading them through Georgia to the 
Atlantic coast. 

There were still other victories during the month of 
September, which I cannot undertake to enumerate 
without taking me too far from the Army of the Poto- 
mac. One of the most important was the capture of 
the three forts which defended the entrance to Mobile 
Bay, and the destruction of the enemy's war vessels 
found there, by the naval division of Admiral Farragut, 
with the assistance of the land forces commanded by 
General Gordon Granger. One hundred and four 
pieces of artillery and fifteen hundred prisoners were 
the fruits of that expedition. 

Each one of these victories was saluted before Peters- 
burg by a nocturnal salvo of a hundred guns loaded 



SUMMER HARVESTS. 649 

with shell. This disagreeable awakening sounded in 
the ears of the rebels as the death-knell of their 
hopes. This was the reason why so many of them 
concluded not to risk their lives for a cause hence- 
forth hopeless. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

OCTOBER VINTAGE. 

General Butler's success north of the James — Line advanced to the 
Peeble's house — Return to Fort Hell — Misfortunes of a Virginian 
family — General Birney's death — Arrival of recruits at the army — 
Dearth of officers — Political prejudices — Too free talk — Expedi- 
tion to Hatcher's Run — Battle of October 27 — Line broken — 
How the break was repaired — Cavalry on foot — Night retreat — 
The wounded — General Hancock leaves the army. 

The latter days of September were marked by different 
movements, whose meaning could not be doubtful. 
The Tenth Corps was replaced in the trenches by the 
First and Second Divisions of the Second Corps, which 
thus found itself occupying alone the line from the 
Appomattox to the Jerusalem plank road. The line of 
our works was like a second line of skirmishers, the 
regiments occupying in force only the forts, whose cross 
fire was thought sufficient to stop any attempt which 
might be made by the enemy. My front was extended 
to the right as far as a new redoubt, to which the name 
of Fort Meikel was given. To the left, a division of 
the Ninth Corps and one of the Fifth filled the interval 
between the Jerusalem road and the Weldon railroad. 
So that we had four divisions free on that part of the 
line. 

We were not long in learning where the Tenth Corps 
had gone. On the evening of the 28th, a telegram from 
General Grant informed the army that in the morning 
General Ord, commanding the Eighteenth Corps, had 
carried, by assault. Fort Harrison and the whole line of 

650 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 6--, I 

fortifications in front of Chapin's Bluff. At the same 
time, General Birney, at the head of the Tenth Corps, 
had carried the New Market road, near Bailey's Creek. 
General Butler had succeeded where General Hancock 
had twice failed. He captured the position, with fifteen 
guns and several hundred prisoners. This step forward 
was a most menacing one for Richmond. Butler re- 
ceived orders to establish himself there solidly, and no 
effort of the enemy could dislodge him. 

It was time to try again the plan which had given us 
possession of the Weldon railroad, and push our lines 
towards Hatcher's Run. While the reenforcements sent 
by Lee to the north of the James were being worn out 
in costly and useless assaults against Butler, General 
Meade sent his four disposable divisions to his left. 
September 30, they met the enemy intrenched at 
Peeble's house, near the Poplar Grove Church. Griffin 
charged, and carried the redoubt, with the rifle-pits cov- 
ering it ; Ayres, in like manner, carried a less important 
work on a neighboring road. The two divisions of the 
Ninth Corps, now commanded by General Parke, were 
less fortunate. While continuing the movement further 
towards the left, they were attacked by a force of the 
enemy, which drove them back in disorder on the Fifth 
Corps. The position taken by the latter was held, how- 
ever. To better assure the position at all events, Mott's 
division was called in. A part of Gibbon's division re- 
lieved us in the trenches, and the City Point military 
railroad, the extension of which followed parallel to our 
lines, rapidly transported us to General Warren's head- 
quarters. Arriving by the first train, I met General 
Meade, who ordered a staff officer to guide me to Pee- 
ble's house, where the two other brigades soon joined 
me. The weather was bad ; rain fell in torrents ; it was 
a most disagreeable night. 



652 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The next morning, October 2, three divisions were 
ordered to carry the advanced works, whose line was 
prolonged beyond Peeble's house. The movement was 
made in good order, but without a battle, the enemy 
having evacuated the positions where we expected to 
find him. The whole line then advanced across some 
difficult and very wooded ground. 

The general movement pivoted on the right, and, as 
our division held the left, my brigade, forming the ex- 
tremity of the turning flank, had much trouble to keep 
in line. We had to get through the thickets after the 
style of wild-boars ; but, by breaking the branches to 
make way, we arrived, without delaying the line, in front 
of a farmhouse, where the enemy's skirmishers awaited 
us. Easily dislodged, they continued to fall back, firing, 
as far as a second line of fortifications. This line, 
armed with cannon, and well built on a hill, the ap- 
proach to which was across open ground, extended much 
further than we had supposed. So that, instead of being 
able to turn it, we were ourselves rather exposed to 
being struck on our flank. Four of my regiments were 
promptly formed in a refused line to prepare for any 
movement. But the enemy was probably not strong 
enough to try that experiment. Besides, his attention 
was occupied by Pierce's brigade, which was feeling of 
his line to find out its strength. 

The object of the reconnoissance being fully accom- 
plished, operations were not pushed further. The fol- 
lowing days were employed in extending our intrench- 
ments, and in constructing a number of redoubts, the 
work on which was well advanced when, on the 5th, we 
were relieved by the colored division of General Fer- 
rero. We took up our march for Fort Hell again ; but 
now only four of my regiments were put in the first 
line. The six others camped in reserve in the woods in 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 653 

front of the Chevers house, where I was happy to find 
a shelter more substantial than a tent. 

The house had been abandoned by its owner, who 
lived in Petersburg. He had carried off all the furni- 
ture, and left only one old white-haired negro with his 
wife, hardly less aged than himself. 

The division headquarters were close by, in a more 
imposing house than the one which was still occupied 
by the family of the owner. The owner was a well pre- 
served old man, whose son, an officer in the Confederate 
army, had been captured, and was then in the prison at 
Point Lookout, on the Chesapeake. The wife and two 
daughters of the prisoner had remained at the Jones 
house, with the grandfather. 

I made the acquaintance of the old planter at the time 
when a temporary absence of General Mott gave me 
the command of the division. 

The family was in a most pitiful condition. Mr. 
William Jones owned seven hundred and forty acres of 
land around his dwelling, and four houses in Peters- 
burg. So that a few months before he had been a 
rich man. He had numerous slaves, and flocks still 
more numerous ; his crops were ripening in the sun, 
and promised an abundant harvest, when, at the end of 
the month of June, the war brought the armies to the 
Jerusalem plank road. Everything was swallowed up 
at once before his eyes. Wheat, oats, corn, were cut to 
pieces under the horses' hoofs ; cattle, sheep, hogs, 
fowls were carried off ; negro men and women ran 
away ; and between one day and the next the planter 
found himself without servants, almost without pro- 
visions, and without money ; for, as to his Petersburg 
houses, it would be a long time before they would be of 
any avail to him. 

When I took General Mott's place at headquarters 



654 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the destitution of the family was complete. The di- 
vision commissary and the officers' mess literally pro- 
vided them with food. The mother prepared the 
meals in their chamber, and the orderlies helped the 
grandfather with good-will, bringing him his water and 
wood. The old man bore misfortunes with a philosophy 
somewhat callous, and appeared almost to forget it 
when, in the evening, a whist party gave him the oppor- 
tunity to show his ability as a player, of which he was 
proud. 

But his stoicism had still greater trials to bear. The 
youngest of his granddaughters, fifteen to sixteen 
years of age, was attacked by typhoid fever. She died 
October 15, without having lacked either care or medi- 
cine. The division service had provided for everything. 
After her death, the staff officers clubbed together to 
buy a mahogany coffin, which they sent for to City 
Point. The younger officers did more : they themselves 
bore the body to the grave. The young girl, delivered 
from the miseries of life, was buried at the foot of the 
garden, in the inclosure of the little family cemetery, 
and a chaplain conducted the funeral services over the 
remains. 

Another very sad incident is connected with my 
temporary sojourn at the Jones house. — October 
19 I received the following despatch over the tele- 
graph wires, which put the army headquarters in com- 
munication with all the others : " General Birney died 
yesterday at Philadelphia, at half after ten in the 
evening." The blow was so much the greater that it 
was unexpected. Birney was one of the best friends I 
had in the army. Placed under his orders during fif- 
teen months, I had been able to appreciate his personal 
qualities and military merits. He had died from care, 
worn out by three years of campaigning, during which 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 655 

the energy of his will and the ardor of his patriotism 
alone had been able to sustain him to the end against 
the weakness of his physical constitution. As long as 
he was able to stand, he had remained at his post. 
Two weeks before his death, in the last engagements, 
where he had highly distinguished himself, he had left 
his bed to be put on horseback. The artificial force 
which he had found to enable him to lead his corps to 
the battle deserted him after the victory. Mortally 
affected, he finally consented to return to his home, 
only when it was too late. He had scarcely reached 
Philadelphia when he died, in the midst of his family, 
still young, without living to see the triumph of the 
cause to which he had sacrificed his fortune and his 
life. 

The sad impression of the Jones house on my mind 
could not cause me to forget that at that time the 
absence of General Mott brought to me the honor of 
commanding the Second Corps — during twelve hours, 
on two occasions. General Gibbon was away on leave 
of absence. General Hancock went to pass one day at 
the extreme left, with General Meade, and another to 
the north of the James, with General Butler. Accus- 
tomed to do everything with a military punctuality, he 
notified me that during his absence the command of 
the corps would devolve on me, by virtue of seniority. 
It is useless to add that never was a command so easy 
for me to fill. The enemy did not gratify me by the 
slightest demonstration, and I had not even a paper to 
sign, General Hancock having returned at nightfall to 
sign the report and other official papers. 

The conscripts and substitutes continued to reach us 
in great numbers, notwithstanding the frequent deser- 
tions on the way, in consequence of the culpable negli- 
gence with which that branch of the service was con- 



656 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ducted. The escorts were taken from the most 
miserable troops, those which were good for nothing 
except to guard the depots. They were generally regi- 
ments enlisted for a hundred days, without instruction, 
without uniform, and without discipline. Instead of 
preventing abuses and repressing disorders, they were 
only eager to profit by them, to fleece the recruits, who, 
having received their bounty, generally had their 
pockets well filled. The officers were scarcely better 
than the soldiers. Their good-will was purchased by 
money, and, by offering a sum large enough, it was 
not difficult to obtaiti facilities for desertions. So that, 
on the average, we received at the army only about 
sixty to seventy per cent, of the detachments forwarded 
to us. Therefore, in order to repair the waste from the 
last levy of five hundred thousand men, the President, 
in the month of December following, was compelled 
to make an additional cajll for three hundred thousand 
more. 

Nevertheless, as I said, the recruits reached us in 
large numbers. We have seen by the affair of Ream's 
Station what they were worth on their arrival. How- 
ever, they could be quickly drilled and made useful if 
the war should be prolonged a few months. 

By an unfortunate coincidence, it happened that a 
decision of the Secretary of War took away from us a 
large number of officers. The question was if the 
acceptance of a promotion above the grade of sergeant 
altered the terms of the original enlistment; for in- 
stance : if one who had enlisted for three years as a sol- 
dier, and had become an officer during that time, had a 
right to his discharge at the expiration of these years, 
when the regiment to which he belonged remained in 
the army, reenlisted or filled up by an accession of a 
sufficient number of recruits. The question was an- 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 657 

swered affirmatively. Many officers took advantage of 
it to return home. Some left the service finally, others 
proposed to themselves to return with an advance in rank, 
obtained from the Governor of their State by personal 
application, family influence, or by taking an active part 
in the last work of the electoral campaign in favor of 
Lincoln. The latter were deceived in their calcula- 
tions. The dearth of officers, resulting from their 
departure, made necessary a large number of promo- 
tions, entirely to the advantage of those who remained, 
and especially to those sergeants who had proved their 
bravery and capacity. When those who had gone off 
wished to return, it was too late, the places were taken, 
and the war was finished without them. 

On the return of General Mott, I resumed command 
of my brigade. Only eighteen days intervened before 
the presidential election, and, as we awaited the event 
with an interest easy to imagine, political preferences 
were shown much more openly than usual in the 
army. A majority of not less than five to one was 
already assured to Mr. Lincoln ; but General McClellan 
still had quite a number of partisans, particularly among 
the artillery officers, he having created and organized 
that corps at the beginning of the war. 

One day, I met one of them in General Hancock's 
tent. He was colonel and chief of artillery of the 
Ninth Corps. Naturally, the conversation turned on 
politics, and became so much the more animated that 
the colonel and I did not agree on a single point. A 
partisan of slavery and of compromise, he developed 
such extraordinary theories against emancipation, 
against the policy of the government, and against the 
war, that I could not refrain from expressing to him 
my astonishment in seeing him occupying a position 
amongst us so completely at variance with his opinions. 



658 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

During the discussion, General Hancock, who leaned 
very near the Democratic party, preserved a diplomatic 
silence. He was strongly of the opinion that, if he had 
wished, he might have himself been the candidate 
opposed to Lincoln. It appeared that some politicians, 
friends of his, had, at the time, made some vague 
overtures to him on the subject, overtures which he 
had wisely declined. He had not pronounced for either 
side, making some general remarks, emphasized by 
gestures of the head, desiring to run with the hare and 
hold with the hounds. 

Unfortunately, I commented with some force on the 
consideration due General McClellan as a statesman 
and as a soldier. I was treading there on delicate 
ground. I passed along rapidly, and, taking up the 
Peninsular campaign, I quickly touched on the battle 
of Williamsburg. Carried away by too great confidence 
in the liberality pi the general, and in his personal im- 
partiality as to well known facts, I recalled Hooker, 
abandoned during the whole morning without support ; 
the general-in-chief remaining behind in Yorktown ; his 
arrival in the evening, when everything was over ; his 
ignorance of what had happened — alas ! and the fa- 
mous despatch wherein mention was made of Hancock, 
without a word about Hooker, Kearney, or Peck. 

" Not that I intend for a moment to underrate in the 
least the importance of your part in the battle," I added, 
addressing myself to Hancock, plainly annoyed. " In 
that respect there can be but one voice, and, as much 
as anyone can, I appreciate how much your brilliant 
action on that occasion did you honor. But I appeal 
to yourself : what can be thought of a general-in-chief 
capable of such conduct, and of such injustice towards 
three generals out of four .-• " 

I must acknowledge, the peroration failed to have 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 659 

any effect. The fourth general was little affected by 
the fact that I recognized the justice of his treatment, 
as soon as I spoke of the injustice of which the others 
had been the victims. I had touched a sore spot ; the 
oil I poured upon it did not allay the irritation. 

" I understand," said General Hancock, breaking up 
the session. " You are all alike in the old Third 
Corps. In your eyes, you have done everything in this 
war, and all others nothing." 

I protested in vain ; wounded vanity does not reason. 
I saw plainly that, by a few words too freely spoken, I 
had not only lost the good-will of my corps commander, 
but had also revived his prejudices against the whole 
Third Division. The opportunity to prove it was not 
long in coming. 

Three days after, on October 25, Mott's division, 
relieved in the trenches by Miles' troops, was massed 
for the night back of the lines, not far from Gibbon. 
All detached men who were not absolutely indispen- 
sable where they were detailed were armed, and tem- 
porarily returned to the ranks. No wagon was to 
accompany the expedition. The generals themselves 
received advice to carry their blankets on their led 
horses ; pack mules carried the provisions for the staff. 
All this meant battle, and we understood that a new 
movement was to be made on Hatcher's Run. 

On the 26th, a march of a few hours brought us in 
the afternoon one mile back of Fort Dushane, on the 
Weldon railroad, where we passed the night. 

On the 27th, before daylight, we were on our way. 
The Second Division had the advance. We followed 
by a side road, known as the Vanghan road. 

The object of the movement was : to find the ex- 
treme point of the enemy's fortifications, which, almost 
certainly, must be on Hatcher's Run ; to turn them, so 



66o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

as to take his line in flank and in reverse, and, while a 
part of our force should drive the enemy towards Peters- 
burg, to push with the balance for the Lynchburg rail- 
road, in order to cut this last line of communication. In 
the execution of this plan, the greater part of the Ninth 
Corps was to threaten in front the right of the works 
which had stopped us on the 2d of October ; Warren, 
with two divisions of the Fifth Corps, was ordered to 
attack the line in the rear, while Hancock, with two 
divisions of the Second Corps, operated further on, on 
the left, against the Boydton road first, and afterward 
against the Lynchburg railroad. This was our first 
turning movement against Petersburg. The ground 
was new to us. In calculating the chances of success, 
a large part was left for the unforeseen. 

The march of the Second Corps was very rapid. At 
seven o'clock in the morning the Second Division en 
countered the advance posts of the enemy in front of 
Hatcher's Run, drove them back to the creek without 
halting, and easily forced the passage, carrying an 
unimportant work at that point. I was then sent for- 
ward to cover the movement of the turning column 
towards Dabney's mill. In front of us, the Confederate 
skirmishers occupied a large field on a crossroad, which 
was to serve us as a place of assembly for the greater 
part of our forces. The Seventy-third New York and 
the Second Battalion of sharpshooters quickly dis- 
lodged them, and, the rearguard of the column having 
passed behind us, we arrived at the sawmill, through 
the woods, without further molestation. 

At noon we had reached the Boydton road, having a 
few lively skirmishes between our flankers and the 
enemy's advance pickets. The country was absolutely 
covered with woods. It was impossible to deploy, and 
the whole corps, marching by the flank, could do nothing 



White 4^ Oa k Roa.d 




ACTION 
BOVDTON 



■y.^j yy^. 



From Gen. Walker's " History of the Second Army Corps." 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 66 I 

but follow the narrow and muddy wood road which led 
from the sawmill to the high-road. But there the 
country was cleared up, waste land and fields bordered 
the road both to the right and to the left, which allowed 
us to take a regular position. The Second Division 
moved in advance, ready to attack the embankment of 
Burgess mill, where the enemy appeared to be in no 
great force. It was reenforced by our Third Brigade, 
commanded by Colonel MacAllister. Four of my regi- 
ments, the Seventy-third, the Eighty-sixth, and the One 
Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York, and the bat- 
talion of sharpshooters covered our left flank, along on 
the further side of thick woods on the edge of a wide 
clearing. With the six others, the Ninety-ninth, the 
One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania, the Twentieth 
Indiana, the Fortieth New York, the First and the 
Seventeenth Maine, I was formed across the Boydton 
road, fronting south, to protect the rear of our line. 
And, lastly. General Pierce's brigade was deployed in the 
woods, on a line with MacAllister's. 

These dispositions were scarcely made when General 
Hancock received orders to stop his movement at the 
place where we were. The cause was the delay of the 
Fifth Corps to take the position assigned to it on 
the right of Pierce. The attack of the Ninth Corps 
had not taken place, in consequence of obstacles judged 
insurmountable. The two divisions of the Fifth Corps 
had effected their turning movement, but with much 
more difificulty than had been expected. The rough- 
ness of the ground and the density of the thickets had 
delayed their march along Hatcher's Run, the opposite 
bank of which was crowned with intrenchments. These 
intrenchments, in return of the principal line, extended 
from the angle they made near the creek, to beyond 
Burgess mill, where our division had halted. 



662 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

The enemy, whose skirmishers swarmed everywhere 
through the woods to find out what we were about, were 
not slow to perceive the opening left on our right. 
With his perfect knowledge of the locality, it was not 
difficult for him to send forward a considerable force 
without its being perceived. The attack fell without 
warning on the flank of the Second Brigade, from the 
same quarter where it expected every moment to see 
Crawford's division. It can be imagined what was the 
result. 

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, when 
the firing, at first, led us to suppose that Crawford had 
encountered the enemy on his road. But the firing 
increased in violence, and rapidly approached, mingled 
with noisy shoutings. There was no mistake now. 
Our line had been broken or flanked, and the enemy 
was driving back the Second Brigade upon us in dis- 
order. 

At this instant. General Mott, fearing for the safety 
of the sawmill road, sent the Seventeenth Maine to 
take position there in haste, under guidance of one of 
his staff officers. 

The rebels, continuing their advance, captured two 
guns, and came upon the Second Division. But there 
they found our Third Brigade,* which, it will be remem- 
bered, had been sent to reenforce the Second Division. 
MacAllister, with great promptness and coolness, had 
already changed front to the rear. He received the 
shock without being shaken. The force of Hill's charge 
was broken before the fine resistance of his regiments. 

In order to attack our troops, the enemy had been 
obliged to come out of the woods, and cross the end of 
the open field, at the foot of which a countermarch by 
battalion on the run had already placed my reserve in 
a good position. The moment was critical. If Mac- 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 663 

Allister's line had given way under the increasing press- 
ure of the enemy, the Second Division was in great 
danger of being cut off and surrounded, in which case 
it was lost. In order to prevent this catastrophe, Gen- 
eral Hancock had but my five regiments. They re- 
ceived orders to charge. 

The column which was attacking the Third Brigade 
presented its flank to us. As the distance was consid- 
erable, and time pressed, my men opened fire while 
marching. The balls went faster than they did. A 
part of the rebels turned promptly against us, and the 
fire became very brisk. In the beginning, my guidon 
bearer was knocked off his horse, which was disem- 
bowelled by a shell. In less than five minutes, three 
staff officers fell wounded around me. One of my 
friends and aids, Lieutenant Bonnaffon, was shot througti 
the leg ; Captain Bell was shot through the lungs ; 
Lieutenant Lockwood was struck in the foot. The 
latter two belonged to the division staff. On seeins' 
me charge, they rushed to join in the fray. 

We advanced rapidly on the enemy, who, attacked 
thus both on the front and flank, hesitated, and gave 
way the moment we reached him. MacAllister, re- 
lieved, immediately took the offensive in concert with 
Smythe of the Second Division, and we swept every- 
thing before us. General Mott having then sent me 
the order to resume my first position, leaving only a 
line of pickets in front, I returned, taking along the 
two guns recaptured from the enemy by the First 
Maine, a flag, and two hundred prisoners. But, on the 
other hand, I left on the field eighteen ofilicers and a 
hundred and seventy men. 

Repulsed on this side, the enemy immediately turned 
his attention towards our left, which he hoped to take in 
the flank. He found there my four detached regiments 



664 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

defending the border of a wood, which could be ap- 
proached only across open ground. He made the 
attempt two or three times, but, meeting a strong 
resistance, pushed further to the left with all his 
cavalry, and soon encountered Gregg with his cavalry. 
Both sides dismounted, and a sharp engagement ensued 
in the woods for more than tv/o hours. Gregg's division 
fought with great tenacity, and could not be broken or 
driven back by all the enemy's efforts. 

The battle ceased only at nightfall. General Hamp- 
ton, on the Confederate side, had five brigades with 
him. In stopping them with an inferior force, our 
dismounted cavalry rendered good service, for, if they 
had given way, our line would have been taken in re- 
verse, and we would have had so much the more trouble 
to retire without any mishap in that the Fifth Corps 
had not joined us. Our ammunition was nearly ex- 
hausted ; it was difficult to replenish, in consequence of 
the distance back to the ammunition wagons. In the 
position which I occupied, shells had reached us, 
coming from three directions at once, giving evidence, 
on the part of the enemy, of an intention to make a 
combined attack on us at daylight the next morning. 
These different considerations determined General 
Hancock to retire during the night. 

Between seven and eight o'clock he sent for me. I 
found him dictating orders in a covered wagon, fitted 
up like an office. The wound that he had received at 
Gettysburg had not entirely healed, so that he was 
obliged to take some repose after the fatigue of a day 
passed on horseback. The rain was then falling in 
torrents, and the night was already of an inky black- 
ness. 

" General," he said to me, when I presented myself, 
" I have called you to intrust you with a delicate mis- 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 665 

sion, in which I rely both on your prudence and your 
energy. The Second Corps will withdraw at ten 
o'clock. Naturally, the Second Division will begin the 
movement in retreat, followed by the Third. I leave 
you with the general command of the pickets, both 
infantry and cavalry. I must have three hours ad- 
vance ; you will not withdraw any part of your line 
before one o'clock in the morning. In such a night as 
this, it is not probable that the enemy will perceive our 
movements, or that he will try to interfere with us ; but, 
if any attempt is made, you will have to take the nec- 
essary measures to protect the rearguard of the column 
against any attack. The withdrawal of the pickets will 
perhaps not be so easy. Manage so as not to leave 
any part behind, and to so combine your movements as 
to promptly concentrate your forces at a given point. 
It is important that you should have them well in hand, 
in order to repulse any attack which may be made 
against your retreating line. Whatever happens, your 
rallying point is the sawmill, where the Second Di- 
vision will halt, at least until daylight. Endeavor to 
reach that point without delay, and to bring your 
whole force with you. After which you will only have 
to rejoin your division, and send the regiments which 
do not belong to you to their respective brigades." 

These instructions were so clear and precise that I 
had not a question to ask. I thanked the general for 
the confidence he placed in me, and departed to visit 
the line myself before the movement commenced. 

I took one of my staff officers with me, who had been 
over the ground during the day, and, followed by an 
orderly, I passed into the pine woods, which it was 
necessary to go through in order to reach the picket 
line in a direct course. But, when the last glimmers of 
the fires had disappeared behind us, we found ourselves 



666 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

enshrouded in darkness, doubly opaque under the green 
canopy. It was impossible to distinguish anything. 
Invisible branches whipped us in the face ; at every 
step we struck against the slender pine trees. The 
horses refused to go on in the inextricable labyrinth. 
They turned about, throwing themselves to the right 
and left, and soon caused us to lose all sense of direc- 
tion. In order to remain together, we had to speak 
continually, for, if we had kept silent, we should have 
found ourselves instantly separated from each other. 
At last, after turning and returning without knowing 
which way to go, we ended by coming across a reddish 
glimmer of light, which led us to a battery of artillery 
posted on the edge of the woods. 

We there found, very a propos, Colonel Burns, com- 
manding the Seventy-third New York. Having been 
for several hours without communication with the 
brigade, he Avas coming to me to make report of the 
engagement of the four regiments on picket, and to ask 
for ammunition, which they would probably need at 
daylight. Meeting Colonel Burns in this manner made 
it much easier for me to send my orders along the 
whole line, and, well informed as to the position of 
affairs, I returned to General Hancock, whom I found 
sitting on a log, before a campfire. 

The Second Division defiled in silence, with bayonets 
in the scabbard, the muskets under the arm, and the 
blankets rolled over the shoulders. The Third Division 
began its movement in its turn, silently and with the 
same precautions. The last regiments disappeared in 
the woods, along the sawmill road, and I remained 
alone by the fire with my staff officers and my orderlies. 

Alone } — No. Thei-e were still here and there 
stragglers delayed, I do not know why, and wounded 
left behind, for reasons I too well knew. After the 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 667 

battle, as many were carried away as possible. But, 
during Gregg's engagement, some shells having burst 
among the ambulances, they had been withdrawn 
further from the battlefield, and the transport of the 
wounded went on much more slowly. When the 
ambulances had carried their sad burdens to a distance, 
the movement in retreat prevented their return. There 
remained only the litters which followed the columns in 
their turn. Many unfortunates had been thus aban- 
doned in the woods. Others lay along the edge of the 
road, and, suspecting the fate which awaited them, 
prayed us with moanings to take them with us. I 
heard soldiers saying, " Do not trouble yourselves ; be 
a little patient. The ambulances are going to return ; 
we are here to wait for them." They well knew that 
there was nothing of the sort, but they endeavored to 
spare the poor creatures a few hours of anguish. Per- 
haps they also wished to spare themselves the painful 
emotion of hearing their mournful supplications. 

Quite\near us, a young soldier had dragged himself 
under a cart, to be sheltered from the rain. He had had 
his leg shot through or broken by a ball. Whenever 
any one passed near him, he raised himself up on his 
elbow, and asked in an injured voice, "Are not the 
ambulances coming .-' " " Right away," they answered 
him ; and hurried on in order not to hear any more. 
Some of the experiences of war are as sad as others 
are glorious. 

The fires continued to burn all along the line. They 
were carefully kept up in order to deceive the enemy, 
and to make him believe the troops were still present, 
where really there was no one. The watches were con- 
sulted from time to time. The hours passed slowly ; 
nothing wsls stirring along the Confederate lines, or, at 
least, so it appeared to us, for at that hour they were 



668 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

massing fifteen thousand troops in our front to give us 
a disagreeable reveille, when Aurora with her rosy fin- 
gers — but, at that time, they were to find in our lines 
only the ashes of our extinguished fires. 

At one o'clock in the morning, the order to retire was 
sent along the line. One by one, the companies and 
regiments came out of the woods from different direc- 
tions, and noiselessly assembled on the road. Not a 
shot indicated that the movement had been discovered. 
Every one came out without accident, except one com- 
pany, of twenty-four men and two officers, who went as- 
tray in the woods, and were near entering the enemy's 
lines. They explained their mistake by saying that they 
were a part of a detachment sent out to relieve the 
pickets. The explanation seemed so natural that it 
turned aside suspicions, to which their capture might 
have given rise. 

It was nearly two o'clock when we withdrew in our 
turn. Passing the troops massed at the sawmill, we 
crossed Hatcher's Run a little further along, taking with 
us a large number of stragglers. At seven o'clock in 
the morning, we had rejoined the division, and I re- 
ported to General Hancock the withdrawal of the 
pickets without fight or accident. This good result was 
due in great part to the active and earnest efforts of 
Colonel Rivers, commanding the Eleventh Massachu- 
setts, who was on duty as officer of the day of the 
division. 

I have related the affair of October 27 with a ful- 
ness of detail, because the general commanding does 
not appear to have appreciated the incidents as I saw 
them. When a landscape-painter finds his subject for 
a painting in nature, on transferring it to his canvas, 
he puts in the lights and shades as pleases him. Gen- 
eral Hancock's report was treated somewhat in this 



OCTOBER VINTAGE. 669 

manner, and, in the division of the light and shade, the 
relief was for the Second Division, and the background 
for the Third, especially as to what concerned my bri- 
gade. The general wished, doubtless, to restore the 
reputation of the men of Ream's Station, while giving 
a lesson in modesty to those of the old Third Corps, 
" who believed they had always done everything." One 
fact is certain, that the Second Division did not lose 
half as many men as the Third. 

However, it is right, in such case, to bear in mind the 
lying and exaggerated reports which might lead a corps 
commander, and even a division commander, to an in- 
voluntary error. I had an example of this myself on 
this occasion. It will be noticed that all my regiments 
had been engaged excepting one. The Seventeenth 
Maine, whose colonel was absent that day, had been 
detached from my command to cover a point of the saw- 
mill road which was thought to be threatened. The 
next morning, I learned with satisfaction that the regi- 
ment had vigorously repulsed the enemy when he had 
shown himself. This came from a report addressed to 
General Mott, by his inspector-general, W., who had 
been ordered to guide the detachment. He had dis- 
posed it in such and such a manner ; he had done this 
and that. He only regretted one thing : that he had 
not had more troops, in order to cut off the rebels from 
retreating, etc. Some days later, Colonel West having 
returned, I thought I ought to express to him my satis- 
faction at the good conduct of his regiment. He looked 
at me an instant with a surprised air, as if to be sure 
that I was not rallying him. Then, with frankness, he 
said, " But, General, my regiment did not see an enemy 
or fire a cartridge ! " 

It was true. The author of the report was an officer 
capable of great bravery ; but he was less scrupulous 



670 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

than brave, and, profiting by a position in which he was 
out of view, he had represented as facts what was only 
a might-have-been. His gasconade profited him as he 
wished. He was only a major ; this fine imaginary tale 
brought him the commission of lieutenant-colonel. 

It must be said : these things happened too often in 
the army. In general, those who are the most boastful 
are those who do the least, and vice versa. So that 
rewards are far from being in porportion to merit. 
Humbug is decidedly more profitable. How m^any rapid 
promotions I have seen from no other cause ! So that 
many deserving officers ended by resorting to it in order 
to have justice rendered to their services, which other- 
wise would have been overlooked or misconstrued. 

General Hancock left the army a few days after the 
unsuccessful operations against the Boydton road. He 
was ordered to Washington, to organize a new army 
corps, which was to be composed entirely of men who 
had already been in service. But neither the prestige 
of his name nor the advantages offered were enough to 
make the project successful. But few regiments were 
raised, which never entered the field. So that from the 
month of November General Hancock disappeared, no 
more to return, from the scene where he had justly 
achieved a brilliant reputation as general of division and 
commander of a corps. 



CHAPTER XXXir. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 

Presidential campaign of 1864 — Cleveland convention — Baltimore 
convention — Platforms — Nomination of Mr. Lincoln — Chicago 
convention — Democratic profession of faith — The question of pris- 
oners of war — Barbarities of the rebel government — Nomination of 
General McClellan — Desperate manoeuvres — Election — The army 
vote — Counter-stroke by the Confederates — Thanksgiving. 

While military operations were being carried on in 
front of Petersburg with an indomitable perseverance, 
electoral operations were carried on in the North with 
an indefatigable activity. The nearer the day of elec- 
tion came, the greater the ardor of the two parties in 
the strife. On their side, the Republicans wished the 
war to continue until the extinction of the rebellion, 
and the reestablishment of a Union consummated by 
victory and ennobled by the immediate abolition of 
slavery. The Democrats, on the other hand, demanded 
the suspension of the war, by a compromise with the 
rebellion, and the conditional restoration of a Union 
subject to the pretended rights of the South, implying 
every reserve in favor of the maintenance of slavery. 
The first were desirous of reaping the fruits of former 
sacrifices by means of new sacrifices ; the latter wished 
to accept the total loss of the bloodshed, and the treas- 
ure expended, and incur no more. One party would 
form no alliance with treason ; the other would make 
an alliance with hell itself if it were to their interest. 
The inspiration of the Republicans was an enlightened 
patriotism ; the moving Democratic idea was a short- 
sighted egotism. 

671 



672 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY, 

At the beginning of the presidential campaign, the 
Republican party had been threatened with a compro- 
mising division. The radical fraction, pushed on by 
the impatience of revolutionists, and influenced by per- 
sonal rancor, made a call for a convention, to be held at 
Cleveland, May 31, to meet before the time of the reg- 
ular convention, whose ruling motive was directed 
expressly against the reelection of President Lincoln. 
The call, addressed, as usual in such a case, " to all 
independent men, jealous of their liberties, and of the 
national grandeur," was made for two reasons : in the 
first place, the present administration had abused be- 
yond measure its facilities for patronage, resulting 
from the organization of an army of a million of men. 
And, in addition, at the next election, the doctrine that 
one man should hold but one presidential term should 
be adhered to as an inflexible principle. " A rule hav- 
ing almost acquired the force of a law, by the consecra- 
tion of time." Which was not true. The history of 
the United States demonstrated that. In the second 
place, the Republican convention called for the 8th of 
June, at Baltimore, was not really a national conven- 
tion. Why .-' Because it would hold its sessions too 
near the centre of administration. So that another 
convention must be called, at a more central point, as 
much to make the expense light on the purse of its 
members as to preserve their consciences. 

Never in the history of the United States had a 
more transparent political manoeuvre been built upon 
such a poverty of reasons. The common-sense of the 
people was not deceived by it for an instant, and the 
Cleveland convention was a complete failure. If there 
had been a germ of life in it, the letter of acceptance of 
its candidate for the Presidency would have been suffi- 
cient to destroy it immediately. General Fremont 



TPiE BEGINNING OF THE END. 673 

therein declared, in plain terms, that if any other candi- 
date than Mr. Lincoln were nominated at Baltimore, he 
would not stand in the way of a fusion in favor of his 
rival ; but if it were Mr. Lincoln who obtained the 
nomination, " there would be no other alternative 
except to organize all the elements of conscientious 
opposition against him, in order to prevent the misfor- 
tune of his reelection." Now, it must be remembered 
that General Fremont, having charge of the department 
of Missouri, in 1861, had raised such a disturbance by 
the abusive acts of his administration that the govern- 
ment had been compelled to remove him after a few 
months. Inde ir(2 ! His old popularity, shaken since 
that time by his hostile attitude towards the adminis- 
tration, did not survive this last manifestation, full of 
personal rancor, and, finally, there was no course left to 
him to extricate himself from the false step which he 
had taken, except to rally around President Lincoln, 
withdrawing from his own candidacy. 

The Republican convention assembled at Baltimore 
on the day appointed. It was composed of delegates 
from all the Northern States, and from some districts 
of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas, numbering 
more than five hundred men. Its platform was clearly 
expressed in the following resolutions : — 

" Resolved, That it is the highest duty of every 
American citizen to maintain, against all their enemies, 
the integrity of the Union, and the paramount author- 
ity of the Constitution and laws of the United States ; 
and that, laying aside all differences of political opinion, 
we pledge ourselves, as Union men, animated by a com- 
mon sentiment, and aiming at a common object, to do 
everything in our power to aid the government in 
quelling, by force of arms, the rebellion now raging 
against its authority, and in bringing to the punish- 



6/4 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors 
arrayed against it. 

" Resolved, That we approve the determination of 
the government of the United States not to compro- 
mise with rebels, or to offer any terms of peace, except 
such as may be based upon an unconditional surrender 
of their hostility, and a return to their just allegiance to 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, and 
that we call upon the government to maintain this posi- 
tion, and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible 
vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, in 
full reliance in the self-sacrificing patriotism, the heroic 
valor, and the undying devotion of the American people 
to their country and its free institutions. 

" Resolved, That, as slavery was the cause and now 
constitutes the strength of the rebellion, and as it must 
be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of 
republican government, justice and the national safety 
demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil 
of the Republic ; — and that, while we uphold and main- 
tain the acts and proclamations by which the govern- 
ment, in its own defence, had aimed a death-blow at 
this gigantic evil, we are in favor furthermore of such 
an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the 
people in conformity with its provisions, as shall termi- 
nate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within 
the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States." 

On the first ballot, Mr. Lincoln received four hundred 
and ninety-seven votes, and the nomination was made 
unanimous by acclamation. 

It cannot be said that, during its existence, the 
administration of Mr. Lincoln had been without spot. 
Doubtless it had tolerated, more or less willingly, a 
certain number of abuses ; but the people took into the 
account the immense difficulties, the multiplied compli- 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 675 

cations with which the government had to struggle in 
the midst of events without precedent. In the presence 
of the great things it had accomplished, the pubHc con- 
science had no thought of bringing up against it the 
things it might have done. Besides, as Mr. Lincoln 
himself said, with the good-sense and wit which charac- 
terized him, "The people were of the opinion of the 
Dutch farmer, who thought it was not the time to trade 
horses while crossing the stream." 

The Democratic convention had been appointed for 
June 22 ; but the leaders of that party, embarrassed by 
the strifes in its own ranks, desirous of diminishing the 
blow about to fall upon them as much as possible, and 
thinking they must have delay to compose their differ- 
ences, postponed the meeting of the convention until 
August 29. Until then they made the best of their 
time to bring odium upon the administration by every 
means in their power. Their Southern allies came to 
their assistance, by intrigues in default of victories. 
Under pretext of propositions for peace, there were 
underhanded plottings on the Canadian border, by 
means of rebel agents, in order to make it appear that 
Mr. Lincoln refused to honorably conclude the war 
before the extermination of the South. These manoeu- 
vres came to an end, after having made more or less 
noise, without producing the desired result. Neverthe- 
less, the partisans of peace at any price, led by Mr. 
Vallandigham, gained enough ground to control the 
convention when it assembled at Chicago. 

Horatio Seymour, Governor of New York, who had 
become noted for his factious opposition to the govern- 
ment, was appointed President. Vallandigham was 
appointed chairman of the committee to draw up the 
platform. The sentiments of the convention were ex- 
pressed in the following resolution : — 



676 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

" Resolved, That this convention does explicitly 
declare, as the sense of the American people, that, after 
four years of failure to restore the Union by the experi- 
ment of war, — during which, under the pretence of 
military necessity or war power higher than the Con- 
stitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded 
in every part, and public liberty and private right alike 
trodden down, and the material prosperity of the coun- 
try essentially impaired, — justice, humanity, liberty, 
and the public welfare demand that individual efforts 
be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an 
ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable 
means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable mo- 
ment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Fed- 
eral Union of the States." 

The remaining resolutions were nothing but violent 
denunciations of all the acts of the government, per- 
verted even to the point that it was denounced for hav- 
ing suppressed the liberty of the press, at the very time 
when the Democratic papers were filled with the most 
unbridled abuse of the President and his administration, 
without let or hindrance, and when the most violent 
language was poured forth on all the stages erected for 
party meetings. 

One of these resolutions reproached the government 
for not having done its duty towards those of our sol- 
diers who were prisoners of war. It may be well to 
remark that if the Confederate government had not 
shown the grossest bad faith, not one of our soldiers 
would have remained a prisoner in its hands, for on 
the 7th of May, in consequence of the release on 
parole of the rebel forces captured at Vicksburg and 
Port Hudson, the balance was in our favor to the num- 
ber of thirty-three thousand five hundred and ninety- 
six. But Jefferson Davis and his officials persisted in 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 677 

Stopping or delaying the exchanges under all sorts of 
pretexts, with the object, in the first place, of making it 
impossible for our unfortunate soldiers to take up arms 
again, on account of their sufferings and privations. In 
order not to be suspected of exaggeration on this sub- 
ject, I will limit myself to borrowing textually a few 
passages from the official report made by a special 
committee of Congress. 

" The evidence proves, without any possible doubt, 
the deliberate purpose on the part of the rebel authori- 
ties, put in practice and long persisted in, to subject 
those of our soldiers who had the misfortune to fall 
in their hands to a system of treatment the result of 
which was to reduce many of the survivors returning to 
us to a condition, physical and moral, which no lan- 
guage can completely describe. Nearly all the patients 
now in the hospital of the Naval Academy at Annapo- 
lis, and in one in the western part of Baltimore, have 
received the most attentive and intelligent care for 
more than three weeks, and many among them for a 
still longer time. Nevertheless, they still present the 
exact appearance of living skeletons, being literally 
skin and bones. Numbers of them are lamed for life, 
having had their limbs frozen while exposed to the 
severities of winter at Belle Isle, forced to lie on the 
naked ground, without tents or blankets, many without 
overcoats or even coats. . . . 

" It is stated by witnesses that it was a general 
practice among those who captured prisoners to rob 
them of everything of value, — money, blankets, 
clothes, — for which they received in exchange only a 
few worn-out rags almost worthless." 

Example : Lieutenant Fisher, of General Mott's staff, 
was made prisoner at Deep Bottom, while carrying an 
order. The colonel of the Twenty-seventh regiment 



678 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

of the rebel Virginia cavalry robbed him of his gold 
watch, his money, and pocket-book. The subalterns, 
following the example of their chief, took from him his 
hat and his boots, and he was compelled to march with 
naked feet and bare head where his escort led him, too 
happy to save his uniform. If he had not been an 
officer, they would probably have left him only his pan- 
taloons and shirt. 

" Witnesses declare that often, on rising in the 
morning from their couch, on the naked ground, they 
found many of their comrades had died of cold during 
the night. In regard to the food furnished our men by 
the rebel authorities, it was proved that the ration for 
each was entirely insufficient in quantity to keep a 
child in good health, even if it had been of good quality, 
which it was not. It consisted habitually of, at the 
most, two small pieces of coarse corn bread, in which 
the cob was ground up with the corn, mixed together, 
and badly cooked ; and only occasionally about two 
ounces of meat, so bad as to be scarcely eatable ; once 
in a while, a few wormy beans. 

" Those who had been allowed to receive clothes and 
blankets, sent by our government for their use, were 
obliged to sell them to their guards or others, at what- 
ever price they could get, in order to support life by an 
addition to their diet. 

" Besides this insufficiency of food, clothing, and 
shelter, our soldiers who were prisoners were subjected 
to the most cruel treatment on the part of those who 
guarded them. They were insulted and shamefully 
maltreated on nearly every occasion. Many of them 
were shot down without mercy, for having failed to 
obey the demands of their jailors, sometimes for having 
violated rules of which they knew nothing. When they 
were crowded together in great numbers in buildings, 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 679 

the sentinels fired on them and killed them when they 
showed themselves at the windows to breathe a little 
fresh air. One man, whose comrade on the battlefield 
and in captivity had been fortunate enough to be 
included among those exchanged, was killed in his 
room while he was waving an adieu to his friend. Wit- 
nesses testify to other cases of murder, equally without 
justification. 

" A part of our exchanged prisoners have returned to 
us without coats, or hats, or shoes, or stockings. The 
committee is powerless to give you a correct idea of the 
sad and miserable condition of the men they have seen 
in the hospitals they have visited. In spite of all the 
care bestowed upon them, they are dying every day, 
and your committee were witnesses to the mournful 
spectacle of the death of one of them. All declared 
that the state to which they are reduced is caused 
solely by the barbarous treatment to which they were 
subjected on the part of the enemy during their cap- 
tivity ; the surgeons having charge of them have not 
the least doubt that the declarations of their patients 
are true in all respects." 

My pen refuses to reproduce here the horrible de- 
tails of this long martyrology, which the commitee closes 
by photographs of the principal victims. These photo- 
graphs, reproduced by engraving, render all comment 
superfluous for those who have seen them. In com- 
parison with the abominable hells where our prisoners 
were tortured by the instruments of Jefferson Davis, 
the Siberian mines are a place of peace and comfort. 
At Andersonville as many as thirty-five thousand were 
tumbled in and heaped up inside of a stockade in the 
open air, without shelter, without blankets, nearly with- 
out clothing. There they died at the rate of a hundred 



68o FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

a clay, not to speak of those who there lost their reason 
through stress of hunger and suffering. 

And the Democratic party at Chicago made common 
cause with their assassins ! And made it a reproach to 
our government that it had not performed its duty 
towards these prisoners of war ! And, in its audacious 
hypocrisy, offered its sympathy to our soldiers and 
sailors ! But liberty is admirable in that it confounds 
impudence and unveils hypocrisy. The good-sense of 
a free people takes account of the falsehoods, and 
always ends by giving the verdict to the truth. Allow 
free speech and a free press, and let the people judge. 
The world will take the right road. 

When the Chicago convention proceeded to the nom- 
ination of a candidate for the Presidency, the name of 
McClellan brought on a violent debate, which was pro- 
longed during the entire day. On the next day he had 
but one hundred and sixty-two out of two hundred and 
twenty-eight votes. The general was guilty of having 
fought the rebellion by arms, although he had done 
everything not to succeed. But he had a majority 
which was finally raised to two hundred and two votes, 
and he was nominated. 

A portion of the Democratic party which had pro- 
nounced in favor of the war, and- which still kept its 
patriotic sentiments, was confounded by the spirit of 
the convention, and by the general tone of the speeches 
made there. In order to counteract it, or, at least, to 
diminish the effect, the War Democrats, as they were 
called, procured from McClellan, in his letter of accep- 
tance, a declaration in favor of a vigorous renewal of 
the war, in case all peaceful efforts, first tried, should 
fail. The result was to irritate the peace men at any 
price without having any influence on tJiose for war at 
all Jiazards. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 68 1 

General McClellan had been well chosen by the plot- 
ters, who thought only of their own gain in case of 
success. He was a man without a just sentiment of 
personal dignity and without force of character. In 
this whole affair, he played the role of a pliable instru- 
ment, and lent himself readily to whatever was required 
of him. If he had reached the White House, it is 
probable that he would have been a President without 
firmness, floating in all currents and turning in all 
eddies. 

For those who were studying the signs of the times, 
the State elections during the month of September and 
October indicated already the result of the presidential 
election. Vermont, Maine, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 
all gave considerable majorities to the Republican can- 
didate. Even Maryland voted on that side. The allies 
of the South, brought to their last resources, then had 
recourse to desperate manoeuvres. On October 19, a 
band of robbers, in their interest, made an irruption from 
Canada, and carried off the money from the bank of 
St. Albans, in Vermont. A conspiracy was organized 
in the North to overturn the administration by violence. 
The leaders, who belonged to the peace Democrats, 
were arrested, and the plot failed, not without making 
it necessary to send General Butler to New York with 
troops from his army, to prevent any disorder, and 
assure full liberty to vote on election day. 

At last the 8th of November arrived. Never did 
greater quietness mark a more important election. 
Every citizen voted freely as he wished, and the result 
was that Mr. Lincoln was reelected President by the 
vote of all the States but three : New Jersey, Delaware, 
and Kentucky, who gave to General McClellan the alms 
of a few votes. The majority of Mr. Lincoln on the 
popular vote was the largest that any President had 



682 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ever received before him. It amounted to more than 
four hundred thousand votes. 

The army furnished an important contingent ; among 
the officers and soldiers, those only took part in the 
election whom the laws of their States authorized to 
vote. No attempt of any kind was made to influence 
the soldiers on the part of the government. The only 
efforts at proselyting came from the Democratic party, 
who sent electoral agents to us, with their pockets 
stuffed with printed bulletins in favor of McClellan, and 
appeals " for our old general." But these efforts were 
generally poorly received, and sometimes the reception 
accorded to the apostles of the Chicago profession of 
faith was of a kind to disgust them with their mission. 

Such was the case of one of the too zealous preachers 
while I was temporarily commanding the division. He 
had come to the army on a pass from the Governor of 
Connecticut. An unhappy inspiration led him to my 
headquarters, where he found shelter under the chap- 
lain's tent, and was entertained at the officers' table. 
He soon unmasked his batteries by making seditious re- 
marks before the members of the staff. Repulsed in 
this quarter, he tried his fortune among the soldiers of 
the provost-guard, to whom he held forth in language so 
grossly insulting to the President of the Republic, and 
so transparent in its encouragement for treason, that 
his auditors seized him and took him to their captain. 
On hearing the cause, Captain Brennan shut up the 
orator in the stockade, which was used for a prison, in 
order that an autumn night passed in the open air 
might calm the intemperance of his zeal. The next 
morning, the Democratic commercial traveller was hur- 
ried off to the provost-marshal of the army, who re- 
turned him to Washington, doubtless very much dis- 
gusted with the result of his electoral excursion. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 683 

In the Army of the Potomac, the vote was seven to 
one in favor of Lincoln. The Western armies gave 
him a still greater majority. In my brigade, only one 
regiment, the Fortieth New York, gave to McClellan a 
number of votes worth noting. Among all the others 
he obtained only an inconsiderable minority. The Sev- 
enteenth Maine voted unanimously against him. 

The people welcomed the result of the election as the 
beginning of the end, and the allies of the rebellion were 
cast down by the blow. 

To the rebels themselves the stroke was terrible. 
The success of the Chicago candidate was their last 
hope, spes lUtima Trojce ! We had heard from their 
lines the cry, " Hurrah for McClellan ! " Which, as 
may be thought, did not increase the popularity of the 
Democratic candidate among us. On such occasions, 
our men replied by a unanimous shout, " Hurrah for 
Lincoln ! " A bad sign for our adversaries. 

Three days before election, they attempted a noctur- 
nal coup de mam, whose success — if it were successful 
— would at the last moment spur up the zeal of their 
allies in the North. The plan was divulged in some 
way or other, for on the 5th of November, between nine 
and ten o'clock in the evening, I received orders to put 
my brigade under arms and form in line, behind the 
works, my five regiments in reserve. Towards mid- 
night, there suddenly broke forth a violent firing at my 
right, which extended along the front of my pickets. 
The artillery opened fire immediately on both sides ; 
the cannon lighted up the lines by the flashing of their 
fire, and the mortars streaked the heavens with a shower 
of falling stars. It was Hampton's legion, composed of 
South Carolina troops, which threw itself on the posi- 
tion occupied by our Third Brigade. The sudden im- 
petus of the attack carried at first our rifle-pits and a 



684 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

little part of the works ; but, before the assailants could 
effect a lodgement, MacAllister was upon them with two 
or three of his regiments. An obstinate although short 
combat ensued. The enemy, beaten back, regained his 
lines as soon as possible, leaving in our hands fifty 
or more prisoners, and a number of dead and wounded 
on the ground. The abortive attack cost Lee one hun- 
dred and fifty to two hundred men, and did not gain a 
vote for McClellan. 

From and after the reelection of Lincoln, the number 
of desertions from the Confederate ranks sensibly in- 
creased. Many came into our lines ; many others took 
every occasion to abandon the army and secretly return 
home. In order to pursue and bring back an army of 
refractory soldiers and deserters, the Richmond govern- 
ment had to distribute pretty much every where another 
army of military employes, which was necessarily a 
source of weakness. At a number of points, and es- 
pecially in North Carolina, the deserters went back into 
the mountains armed, where the rebel government did 
not dare to search for them. They lived there until the 
end of the war at the expense of the inhabitants, upon 
whom they levied contributions without mercy, organ- 
ized in numerous bands resembling brigands rather than 
soldiers. We may well think that the rural populations 
whom they victimized were thoroughly disgusted with 
the Southern Confederacy. 

The only bonds of cohesion which henceforth kept 
together the armies of Hood before Sherman and the 
army of Lee in front of Meade was that of discipline 
and the point of honor of fidelity to the flag. In neither 
army did any illusion prevail as to the near result of the 
war. 

Mahone's division, composed principally of troops 
from Florida^ Alabama, and Mississippi, among whom 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 685 

desertions were most frequent, was replaced before 
Fort Hell by the Carolinians and Virginians of Ander- 
son, who inspired more confidence. These movements 
gave rise to repeated rumors that the evacuation of 
Petersburg was liable to happen at any moment. The 
deserters themselves appeared to believe this, so that 
vigilance was redoubled everywhere. On several occa- 
sions the army was put under arms during the night, 
ready to start in pursuit of the enemy on the first infor- 
mation as to the abandonment of the lines. 

It is quite possible that General Lee thought of 
leaving. But, if he did have the idea, he felt that he 
was watched too closely to be able to put it into execu- 
tion without running the risk of irreparable disaster. 
So that he remained unto the end fast in his position, 
pressed more and more, but always opposing an obsti- 
nate resistance, while the breezes from the west brought 
to him the sounds of the crushing defeats, in the midst 
of which Hood's army melted away. 

'General Grant had wisely judged when he had said 
that the Confederacy was but an empty shell, whose 
whole resistance was on the outside. Before the end of 
the year it came to pass that the shell was crushed on 
one side and somewhat broken on the other. 

It was, then, with good heart and with good appetite 
that the Army of the Potomac celebrated Thanksgiving 
day, for which the population of several States had sent 
from New York cargoes of provisions of every kind. 
The City Point railroad brought us mountains of eata- 
bles, fowls of all kinds, pastry of all sorts, preserves of 
every nature. Turkeys and the traditional plum pud- 
dings figured there above all in sumptuous abundance, 
many having on them the card with the name of the 
giver. Sheridan's and Butler's armies were included in 
this act of popular generosity, so well arranged that 



686 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

there was not, from the banks of the Potomac to those 
of the James and Appomattox, a soldier who did not 
share in the feast. 

These details may appear insignificant to those who 
have not been through the trials of war, and have never 
had a place left vacant at their firesides for one absent 
under the flag ; but those who have campaigned at a 
distance for several years will understand the signifi- 
cance of these tokens of remembrance, sent by the fam- 
ily of the poor as well as of the rich, to the soldiers who 
were fighting for the common cause. They will not 
be astonished that the gift filled our hearts with thank- 
fulness. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE LAST WINTER. 



General Humphreys —A raid to the south of Virginia — Cloth pontoons- 
How a railroad is destroyed —A winter's night— Exodus of negroes — 
Murder punished by fire — Military executions — Renewed operations 
on Hatcher's Run — Last extension of our lines — General Grant's 
chessboard — Sherman's march — Victories in Tennessee — Cavalry 
raids — Capture of Fort Fisher — Schofield in North Carolina — 
Sherman's arrival at Goldsborough — Sheridan at work — His return 
to the Army of the Potomac. 

November 26, General Humphreys took command of 
the Second Corps, succeeding General Hancock. His 
name has already appeared in our narrative, principally 
in giving the account of the battles of Fredericksburg 
and Gettysburg, where he played a conspicuous part in 
very critical circumstances. Since then General Meade 
had attached him to his headquarters as chief of staff, 
a position more useful than brilliant. The command of 
a corps exhibited much better his qualities as a soldier, 
and if it was an advantage to him to have us under his 
orders, it was a good fortune to us to have him for a 
commander. 

General Humphreys bore little resemblance to his 
predecessor. Physically, he was rather small and some- 
what spare. His head is that of a thinker and worker. 
The habit of observation has developed in his face the 
impression of a natural keenness, the expression of 
which gives emphasis to his language when he speaks, 
and his silence when he listens. His manners are sim- 
ple, pleasant, and with no shade of affectation. Never 
did any man in his position think less of being valued 

687 



688 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Otherwise than by his services. Thus, in his conversa- 
tion, devoid of useless v^rords, it was generally felt that 
he ordinarily kept back more than he uttered. 

He was an officer of the greatest merit, belonging to 
the corps of engineers. While acting as such, having 
charge before the war of a scientific survey of the course 
and the mouths of the Mississippi, he wrote a treatise 
on the subject so remarkable that Congress had it 
printed, and it is to-day a source of valuable information 
for the world of science. 

As commander of a corps, his clearness of perception 
and the perspicacity of his coup d'ceil were powerfully 
aided by a perfect coolness under fire. His calm 
bravery and insensibility to danger left him always in 
full possession of his faculties. The only thing which 
could affect his self-possession was an unexecuted order 
or movement badly carried out in time of action. Then 
he broke forth so much the more violently in that ordi- 
narily his feelings were restrained. To give vent to it, 
the general had recourse to flaming outbreaks in which 
all the vigor known or unknown of the English lan- 
guage burst forth like a bomb. After which, mani- 
festly relieved, he resumed his usual calm demeanor. 
The atmosphere became serene again ; the storm had 
passed. And, to conclude, General Humphreys was 
recognizable among all the officers of the army by a 
narrow necktie, of a brilliant red, which he always wore. 

Our new chief had scarcely taken command when we 
left Fort Hell and its vicinity, this time to return no 
more. We changed position with the Ninth Corps, and 
our three divisions were placed on the extreme left, 
around the Peeble's house. It was December i, and 
winter had already announced its presence by several 
hard frosts. The men set to work like beavers to build 
winter huts. Labor lost. On the 7th, our division was 



THE LAST WINTER. 689 

on the road with the Fifth Corps, for an expedition 
commanded by General Warren. We carried six days' 
rations, and a hundred rounds per man. We took very 
little besides ; the ambulances alone followed the col- 
umn, with a few ammunition wagons and a few wagons 
for the commissary stores. As usual, Gregg's cavalry 
was with us. 

I will not say that we left our new quarters without 
regret, before having used them ; but all traces of an- 
noyance vanished with the dispersion of the morning 
fog, especially when it became evident that, instead of a 
new extension of the lines to the left, we were to make 
an excursion to a new part of the country. The weather 
had become more mild ; it was one of those autumn 
days in which it is a pleasure to march, and the spirit is 
exuberant. We turned our backs on Petersburg, which 
was not unpleasant to us ; we advanced into a country 
in which the marks of war showed less and less, and 
which had the charm of novelty to us. Here is a line, 
however, marked out across the road with little piles of 
fences in front as posts for skirmishers. This is where 
the Third Brigade, marching to the aid of Hancock at 
Ream's Station, received an order, through a mistake, 
to halt. Here we are at the woods where the dis- 
mounted cavalry delayed as well as they could the 
advance of the rebels, while further along Miles re- 
formed the disordered infantry. We passed beyond the 
scene of conflict ; we met no more reminders ; we are 
in a new region. 

At sunset we had made twenty miles, and had not 
met the enemy. In front of us was the Nottoway, a 
small river, quite deep, and running in capricious wind- 
ings, under the shade of great trees, bordered by wide 
fields. A little further along there had been a bridge, 
but the cavalry had just set it on fire, according to 



690 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

orders, and Warren himself overlooked the laying of 
cloth pontoons, to enable us to cross to the further bank 
before night. 

I do not remember to have spoken about these cloth 
pontoons, so easily transported and so useful on expedi- 
tions where streams are met with. They are cut out 
and sewed together in the form o^ a flat-boat. In order 
to use them, the cloth is stretched over a frame-work of 
wood, which can be put together and taken apart easily. 
When in the water, they carry the flooring for a bridge 
as well as the wood pontoons ; nothing being easier than 
to empty from time to time the little water soaking 
through them. When we move on, the framework is 
taken to pieces, the cloth rolled up, and everything put 
into boxes, much lighter and easier to transport than 
the ordinary pontoons, which require a strong team for 
each boat. 

Our second day's march led us by the court house of 
Sussex County and the village called Commans' Well, 
near Jarrett's Station on the Weldon railroad. That 
was the goal of our expedition. 

The railroad not having been destroyed beyond 
Ream's Station, the enemy had found means to make it 
still quite useful. His wagons followed out the Boydton 
road, and reached the end of the railroad by crossroads, 
where they were able to load up with supplies. These 
wagon trains, which were under protection of their cav- 
alry, were of great help to them. Our mission was to 
put an end to this trafflc. This is why we pushed south 
so rapidly. We came to destroy twenty miles of railroad 
at such a distance from Petersburg that henceforth it 
would be impossible for the enemy to get supplies from 
this source. 

The work of destruction commenced immediately. 
The cavalry set about it by moonlight ; then the divis- 



THE LAST WINTER. 69 1 

ions of the Fifth Corps took up the work the latter half 
of the night. In the morning we took our turn. The 
work was performed as follows : The whole division 
formed in line of battle, without intervals, along the rail- 
road, and stacked arms. The soldiers then ranged 
along the side of the rails. At the command, ready, 
every man bent over and seized the end of the tie in 
front of him with both hands. At the second command, 
the first regiment near a break or end raises with a 
common effort the ties and rails. All the others do the 
same thing successively, and the iron road, with its sup- 
port, is raised up on one side and overturned, rolling 
along like a long ribbon. That done, the rails are 
broken apart, and the ties piled up in square heaps. 
On each pile, filled in with dry wood and brushwood, 
five or six rails are placed across each other, and then 
the pile is set on fire. The intense heat softens the 
iron, which soon bends by the weight of its two un- 
supported ends, and the rails, being no longer square, 
cannot be used again until rerolled. 

All this was very quickly done. In less than twenty- 
four hours, we destroyed in this manner about twenty 
miles of railroad, although a part of the troops remained 
always under arms, to receive the enemy if he should 
present himself. On drawing near Hicksford, the 
enemy's cavalry was met. But it was not in any great 
force, and was driven to the other side of the Meherin, 
where the destruction of the railroad ceased. The ex- 
pedition having fully succeeded. General Warren gave 
orders to return the next morning. 

I shall long remember that night. The rain, which 
had begun to fall in the evening, soon changed to sleet, 
and the ground was covered with a coat of ice, thicken- 
ing from hour to hour. 

The trees bent and the branches were broken under 



692 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the weight. The wind, cold and damp, groaned 
amongst the pines like a complaint from suffering 
nature. The temperature lowered still more before 
morning, and, finally, a sun pale and as though himself 
frozen shone over a landscape of sugar candy. It was 
as beautiful as an opera decoration, and fantastic as a 
fairy tale, but exceedingly uncomfortable. Those who 
involuntarily stood around on the ice or sunk in the 
mud-holes were not much disposed to admire the mar- 
vellous delicacy of the twigs under their transparent 
envelope. Other incidents, moreover, occurred to with- 
draw all minds from the contemplation of nature. 

During our march on Hicksford, the negroes of the 
country around were on the alert, and, foreseeing our 
return, had packed up their clothes, made ready some 
provisions, and prepared for flight. They had vedettes 
out to watch for our appearance, so that, as soon as the 
column was put in motion to return to Petersburg, they 
began to join us from all sides. They came in bands, 
bundles over the shoulder, the young assisting the old, 
the children in their mothers' arms, and in the gayest 
costumes. To do honor to their liberators, they had 
put on whatever their incongruous wardrobes contained 
that was finest. All the fashions which had obtained 
for two generations were represented. There was the 
Bolivar hat, with large wings, and the stove-pipe, with 
almost imperceptible brim ; the frock coat of the time 
of the Restoration, and the coat with the codfish tail, 
of the reign of Louis Philippe ; the pantaloon a la hus- 
sarde, and the knee-breeches ; boots and pumps ; the 
wool blouse and the ruffled shirt. Among the women, 
the hoops of the second empire were displayed along- 
side the narrow scabbard of the first ; printed calico 
and white muslin. And what hats ! and what caps ! 
and flowers, and even feathers ! An improvised carni- 



THE LAST WINTER. 693 

val in the woods of Virginia. When the rations were 
distributed, there was room for the children and old 
aunties in the quartermaster's wagons. (The female 
slaves were never recognized as wives or mothers, since 
they were not married, and their children belonged to 
the master. For the same reason, the negroes never 
rose above the dignity of 2tncle. Uncle Tom ; Aunt 
Sarah.) Every one who was well and young followed 
on foot. 

Now, after the comedy comes the tragedy. 

At Sussex Court House, the rumor spread among 
the troops that the farmers round about were acting as 
guerillas, riding around our vicinity to pick up strag- 
glers, and that a number of the latter had been mur- 
dered in the farmhouses. The information was brought 
to us by negroes, who offered to prove it by leading us 
to different places where the victims had been secretly 
buried during the night. Detachments were sent out 
to verify the facts, which were found to be true. They 
found the bodies, the throat cut, the head crushed in 
by blows of an axe, and the breast pierced by a knife. 
The punishment began at the same hour. The court 
house was burned, with the neighboring buildings ; 
then the plantation of a rebel colonel, on which three 
of our men had been assassinated ; also a number of 
others along our road, including the barns and cotton- 
gins, and the haystacks standing in the fields. Noth- 
ing was left except the negro huts to serve as shelter to 
the families of the murderers. The last destruction 
was that of a large tavern near Nottoway, where gue- 
rillas were concealed in the cellar. 

The next day, during a glacial cold, in the rear of 
our lines, we made our camp, where we were to pass a 
part of the winter. 

This time of repose was noted only for the frequent 



694 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

military executions amongst the substitutes, who made 
a speculation of desertion, after having pocketed the 
bounty. In some divisions they hanged them, as un- 
worthy to die the death of a soldier. General Miles 
kept the gibbet erected for a long time before his head- 
quarters, as a warning to all parties. In our division, 
two men only were shot, and each time a temporary 
absence of General Mott left to me the disagreeable 
duty of presiding at the ceremony. 

These matters are arranged in the United States 
very much as they are in France. The three brigades, 
drawn up in two lines, form the three sides of a square, 
the fourth side of which is reserved for the execution. 
These arrangements made, the first line faces to the rear, 
and the condemned marches between the two ranks, 
preceded by the music, which plays a funeral march. 
The provost guard acts as an escort, and bears before 
him the coffin in which his dead body will presently be 
placed. The platoon detached for the executipn closes 
the column. When it has passed, the first line faces 
about. 

The funeral procession conducts the condemned to 
the edge of the grave, already dug. After the reading 
of the sentence, repeated at the same time in front of 
each regiment, by the adjutant, the condemned is 
seated, with his eyes blindfolded, upon a board at the 
foot of his open coffin, into which he falls backward when 
shot at the signal given by the provost-marshal. If he 
still breathes, two shots are held in reserve, which are 
fired at the same time, one at the head and one at 
the heart. 

The troops are then formed in column to march be- 
fore the body, and the music, which a moment before 
was a plaintive lamentation, in a minor key, passes 
without a halt to a major key, playing gayly the allegro 



THE LAST WINTER. 695 

for a quickstep. In war, no more time is given up to 
sentiment than is absolutely necessary. 

The remainder of the winter passed away without 
bringing us any other event of note except a second 
attempt against the enemy's right and the Lynchburg 
railroad. The operation was scarcely more than a rep- 
etition of the one which had failed in October, except 
that the posts were differently distributed. This time 
the Fifth Corps was on the turning wing, and the Sec- 
ond at the centre of the line. 

On February 5, we started early in the morning, by 
the Vaughan road. General Humphreys was ordered to 
force the passage of Hatcher's Run. The cavalry not 
having succeeded in doing it, I waS charged with the 
duty. The Second Division, which was in advance, 
halted to let my brigade pass and take position on 
the right. On arriving at the creek, I found some 
unimportant works, behind which the rebels were 
posted in small numbers. But the ford had been 
destroyed, and the bed of the creek so encumbered with 
obstacles that it was impossible for the horses and diffi- 
cult for the men to surmount them. While my sharp- 
shooters occupied the enemy in front, I crossed on foot 
over the barriers of the dam, with two of my regiments, 
the Ninety-ninth and the One Hundred and Tenth Penn- 
sylvania, and the position was carried on the run. My 
other regiments immediately joined me, while the pio- 
neers made a temporary bridge for the cavalry and artil- 
lery. The enemy was then pursued beyond the sawmill 
road by ^he Fortieth New York, and the One Hundred 
and Fifth Pennsylvania (placed temporarily under my 
orders). With the remainder of my brigade, I rapidly 
threw up a semi-circular line of intrenchments, covering 
at once the Vaughan road and that leading to Arm- 
strong's mill on the Run. 



696 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

We worked with a will, and the Second Brigade 
lengthened the line upon my left to make connection 
with the Fifth Corps, which had not yet appeared when 
the enemy made a violent attack between the Third 
Brigade and the Second Division, at that time com- 
manded by General Smythe. This was, as we have 
seen, his favorite method. Profiting very cunningly by 
his knowledge of the smallest accidents of the ground, 
and of the groping manner of moving, to which the 
nature of the country, covered with woods and swamps, 
compelled us, he would throw himself into some interval 
left open carelessly or necessarily. Then, attacking 
vigorously the isolated portion of our troops, he struck 
it on the flank, and too often succeeded in rolling it up 
in disorder as far as he could go without being stopped. 
This was exactly what had taken place on October 27. 
On this occasion, however, the manoeuvre was far from 
obtaining the same success. Between Smythe and 
MacAUister, the assailants were so roughly received 
that, after returning to the charge several times, they 
retired discomfited to their intrenchments, without 
having been able to break our line at any point. So 
that General Humphreys remained master, with two of 
his divisions, of all the ground which he had been 
ordered to occupy. 

On the next day the Fifth Corps did not do so well. 
Warren, in developing his movement, more extended 
than that of Hancock, struck against considerable rebel 
forces. Crawford's division was driven back in disorder 
on Ayres, who had the same fate. The intrenchments 
we had thrown up the evening before were of great 
help in reforming his troops and stopping the enemy, 
who otherwise might have driven us back to the other 
side of the creek. 

The remainder of the month of February was devoted 



THE LAST WINTER. 697 

to Strongly intrenching the captured position, and cov- 
ering it with an immense abatis, stretching out to our 
picket line, a breadth of a thousand to twelve hundred 
yards ; and, finally, in preparing to strike the decisive 
blow when the moment should arrive. All this brought 
us to the 25th of March. 

But, while holding the Army of the Potomac in com- 
parative inactivity. General Grant was only taking his 
measures to beat down the Southern Confederacy into 
such a ruin that nothing would remain standing after 
the fall of Petersburg and Richmond. From his head- 
quarters at City Point, he directed the operations of the 
armies simultaneously and at all points. Electricity and 
steam were at his disposal to transmit his orders in all 
directions, and, upon the immense chessboard of the 
war, he moved his pieces with an ensemble whose com- 
binations must end in checkmate. 

We left Sherman at Atlanta, which he entered victo- 
riously on September 2. In the original plan conceived 
by General Grant, this important place was to be the 
base of an expedition across Georgia, supposing that 
Hood's army should continue to fall back in that direc- 
tion. But it happened quite otherwise, the rebels hav- 
ing turned back to the North, in order to force Sherman 
to retrace his steps on the long line of communication 
which he had to defend as far as Chattanooga. Sher- 
man pursued them at first without abandoning Atlanta ; 
but, soon comprehending that the defence of so extended 
a line would infallibly paralyze the execution of the pro- 
jected plan, he conceived the bold idea of freeing him- 
self from every fetter, by leaving the protection of 
Tennessee to General Thomas, and himself advancing 
through the heart of Georgia, independent of all base 
of operations and supplies. On October 11, he tele- 
graphed to General Grant : — 



698 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

" Hood is now on the river Coosa, to the south of 
Rome. He has pushed an army corps on to my road at 
Acworth, and I have been compelled to follow him. I 
hold Atlanta with the Twentieth Corps, and I have 
strong detachments along my line, which reduces my 
active force to a comparatively small army. We cannot 
remain here on the defensive. With his twenty-five 
thousand men, and the daring cavalry which he has, the 
enemy can always cut my railroad. I would infinitely 
prefer to make a ruin of the road and the country from 
Chattanooga to Atlanta, including the latter city, send 
back my wounded and my sick, and, with my active army, 
march across Georgia to the sea, desolating everything. 
Hood may march upon Tennessee and Kentucky ; but 
I believe that he will be compelled to follow me. In- 
stead of being on the defensive, I will have the offen- 
sive ; instead of trying to guess what he intends to do, 
he will have to guess my plans. This is in war a full 
difference of twenty-five per cent. I may reach Savan- 
nah, Charleston, or the mouth of the Chattahoochee." 

Grant had foreseen Hood's movements, and, the same 
day, before receiving Sherman's despatch, had predicted 
that if he cut loose from Atlanta he would find nothing 
before him but the old men, children, and the troops 
left for railroad guard. " Hood will probably march on 
Nashville, with the idea that by advancing to the North 
he can do us more harm than we can do the rebels by 
penetrating the South." The lieutenant-general would 
have preferred that an end should have been made of Hood 
first, in the fear that Thomas was not strong enough to 
stop him. But, on receipt of the telegram, he replied, 
" If you are convinced that the march to the sea can be 
made while holding firmly the line of the Tennessee 
River, you may make it, destroying the whole line of 
railroad south of Dalton or Chattanooga if you think it 



THE LAST WINTER. 



699 



best." Between Atlanta and City Point the correspond- 
ence was exchanged in less than an hour. It would 
have taken longer for a mounted orderly to carry an 
order from one end of our lines before Petersburg to 
the other. 

Sherman set to work immediately to complete the 
necessary preparations. He sent General Schofield 
with the Fourth and the Twenty-third Corps to join 
General Thomas, in order to make him fully able to 
defend Tennessee, reserving to himself four other 
corps and a division of cavalry. He cut and demolished 
the whole network of railroad terminating at Atlanta ; 
he delivered to the flames all the depots, magazines, 
material, and public property of every sort contained in 
the city, and, on November 14, by the light of this con- 
flagration, he began that famous march which will 
always be known in history as " Sherman's march to the 
sea." His army plunged into the heart of the South, 
like a caravan into the depths of the desert ; the horizon 
closed down upon it, and during a month there was 
utter silence as to its fate, until one day it reappeared 
on the Atlantic coast. Like a river of lava, it had 
devoured everything in its passage. 

During this time, according to the prevision of Grant, 
Hood had arrived in Tennessee, where his presence 
was signalled by the burning of Johnsonville by Forrest, 
and the destruction of a great depot of supplies. Con- 
tinuing his march to Franklin, he found there General 
Schofield in position to bar his passage. On November 
30 he endeavored to dislodge him by a general attack. 
The battle was desperate and bloody. He lost there 
more than six thousand men, among whom were six 
generals killed, six wounded, and one made prisoner. 
Our loss was only twenty-five hundred men. 

After such an advantage, Schofield might have held his 



700 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

position. He preferred to abandon it during the night, 
to unite his forces with those of General Thomas, and, 
by drawing the enemy further away into the interior, 
render his ruin more certain and irreparable. In fact, 
Hood followed him to Nashville. On December 15 
General Thomas, having received the reenforcements 
he expected, and remounted his cavalry, in his turn 
took l;he offensive. The battle lasted two days, and 
ended in the complete rout of the enemy, who, among 
other crushing losses, left in our hands the greater part 
of his artillery and his trains. The rebel general es- 
caped with difficulty from Tennessee, with the remains 
of his army fearfully reduced during his retreat. 

Thus broken in by these hammer blows, the shell of 
the rebellion was also pierced by the gimlet. The de- 
parture of Sherman and the victory of Thomas were 
the signal for a series of raids which cut up the Confed- 
eracy in every direction, destroying a large part of its 
interior means of communication and its depots of sup- 
plies. During the whole winter General Grant directed 
the most diverse operations, upon the most distant 
points, with an extraordinary vigor and activity. He 
sapped the edifice on all sides at once to produce a 
general falling-in, the day of which was rapidly ap- 
proaching. 

In the month of December it was General Grierson 
departing from Memphis at the head of a column of 
cavalry, breaking the Mobile and Ohio railroads and the 
Mississippi Central, destroying the material and sup- 
plies, burning the depots and the bridges, and captur- 
ing a convoy of English arms intended for Hood ; then 
it was General Stoneman sweeping the forces of Breck- 
enridge before him out of eastern Tennessee, captur- 
ing his artillery and trains, destroying the salt works at 
Saltville, and reducing Wytheville, with its factories 



THE LAST WINTER. 7OI 

and storehouses, to ashes. — Other expeditions of the 
same kind were equally successful ; two or three failed ; 
but a few slight checks did not stop the general march 
of our success. 

Sherman, master of Savannah, was getting ready to 
resume his march, this time coming towards us, across 
the two Carolinas. Grant resolved to send an expedi- 
tion to meet him, with the double object of opening a 
new base of supplies, and, at the same time, capturing 
from the rebel government the only port left to it for 
communication with the outer world. This was Wil- 
mington. In consequence of the exceptional difficulties 
which the disposition of the mouths of the river pre- 
sented, we had never been able to seal it hermetically. 
The cruisers, it is true, had made many prizes there, 
but many blockade-runners escaped them, and the Eng- 
lish smugglers, organized on a vast scale at Nassau, 
introduced through this port provisions, ammunition, 
and arms for the rebel government. 

A powerful squadron assembled in haste in Hampton 
Roads, before Fortress Monroe, under command of 
Admiral D. D. Porter. The cooperation of a land 
force being necessary to get possession of the forts. 
General Grant furnished six thousand five hundred men 
from the Army of the James, intended to be under the 
command of General Weitzel, an officer belonging to 
the engineers. But General Butler took upon himself 
to go with the troops and lead the expedition. Decem- 
ber 25, he debarked a part of his force near Fort 
Fisher, and, after a reconnoissance, in which General 
Weitzel believed he was justified in declaring the fort 
impregnable, the troops were reembarked on the 27th, 
and the expedition returned to Fortress Monroe, con- 
trary to the express instructions of the lieutenant-gen- 
eral. The latter believing that the pitiful result was to 



702 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

be attributed solely to the military incapacity of But- 
ler, and the want of judgment or energy of Weitzel, in 
a few days, sent the same troops back, reenforced by a 
brigade of one thousand five hundred men, this time 
giving the command to General A. H. Terry. The bom- 
bardment recommenced, and the fort was carried by 
assault, after a desperate combat, in which the marines 
of the fleet took a part. The other works were aban- 
doned by the enemy. This important success cost us 
scarcely more than six hundred men, killed and wounded. 
It cost General Butler his command, to which General 
Ord succeeded. 

The port was closed ; the city was to be taken. In 
order not to reduce his forces before Petersburg and 
Richmond, General Grant called on General Schofield, 
with the Twenty-third Corps, whose presence was no 
longer necessary in Tennessee since the discomfiture of 
Hood. At the end of January, Schofield took com- 
mand of the Department of North Carolina, and estab- 
lished his forces at Fort Fisher and Newburn. In 
February, he captured Wilmington and its defences, 
after two days' engagement. Conformably to his in- 
structions, he marched on Goldsborough, of which he 
took possession on the 2ist, after some sharp engage- 
ments. Sherman's arrival was now provided for ; he 
would find twenty days' rations for sixty thousand men, 
and twenty days' forage for twenty thousand horses. 

And he soon came, scarcely delayed at all by the 
forces that the enemy had been able to concentrate 
against him, under command of General Joe Johnston. 
He had left Savannah on February i, and resumed his 
victorious march. On the 17th, capturing Columbia, cap- 
ital of South Carolina, he had forced the evacuation of 
Charleston, which was at last in our hands. The fire was 
henceforth extinct on the hearthstone of the rebellion. 



THE LAST WINTER. 



703 



Sherman, in passing, had put his foot upon it. From 
Columbia he had directed his course towards Goldsbor- 
ough via Fayetteville, where he arrived on the 12th of 
March, and where he had opened his first communica- 
tions with Schofield by Cape Fear River. Johnston 
had in vain put himself across Sherman's path, in order 
to prevent the junction of the two armies. At Benton- 
ville, as at Averysborough, he had been beaten and 
thrown back on Smithfield. 

In this ejtseinble of combined operations, whose circle 
was closing in more and more around Richmond, Sheri- 
dan could not be left inactive. His role was to march 
on Lynchburg with his cavalry, and destroy all the 
western communications of the Confederate capital, 
while drawing near Sherman, so as to join him if 
circumstances were favorable. This raid was to coop- 
erate with three others ; the first from Eastern Ten- 
nessee, with four or five thousand cavalry ; the second 
from Vicksburg, with seven or eight thousand horse- 
men ; the third from Eastport, in Mississippi, with ten 
thousand horsemen ; without taking account of an 
advance against Mobile, and the interior of Alabama, 
by thirty-eight thousand men of different arms, under 
the command of General Canby. "That will be 
enough," said General Grant, " to leave nothing of the 
rebellion standing on its feet." 

Sheridan left Winchester February 27, at the head 
of ten thousand cavalry. As was his usual way, he did 
things up in grand style. On his approach, Early had re- 
tired from Staunton to Waynesborough, in an intrenched 
position. Sheridan followed him, and, on March 2, at- 
tacked him with a rush, and carried everything before 
him, and remained master of the fortified position, with 
sixteen hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of artillery, 
their teams and caissons, two hundred wagons loaded 



704 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

with subsistence stores, and seventeen colors. Pursu- 
ing his course, he was the next day at Charlottesville, 
where he began the work of destruction. Bridges of 
iron and bridges of wood, canal locks and embank- 
ments, railroads and plank roads, — everything which 
might be useful to the enemy was burnt or destroyed. 
In order to turn him from his course, the rebels were 
forced to themselves deliver to the flames the two 
bridges over which he intended to cross the James. 
Not being able to advance further south, Sheridan 
decided to join Meade instead of Sherman. Without 
ceasing to destroy everything in his road, he took the 
direction of White House on the Pamunkey, where he 
found a force of infantry sent to meet him with the 
provisions of which he was in need. After a few days 
of repose, he crossed the James, and, on the 27th of 
March, joined the Army of the Potomac, in front of 
Petersburg, in time to take the most brilliant part in 
the great events, the hour for which had struck. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE GREAT STROKE. 

Capture and recapture of Fort Steadman — Desperate combats along the 
lines of rifle-pits — General MacAUister — The conscripts under fire — 
The One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York and the Fifty-ninth 
Alabama — General Lee's plans — General Grant's instructions — 
Opinions in the army — First movements — The battle of White Oak 
road — The battle of Five Forks — Warren and Sheridan — A night 
of engagements — The last assaults — Meeting General Grant — Death 
of General A. P. Hill. — Veiiit summa dies. 

At the first glimpse of light in the morning of March 
25, 1 was awakened by a violent cannonade mingled with 
distant rolling of musketry. I sprang from my camp- 
bed in order to hasten outside. A few staff olificers 
were already up, listening, and hurrying to put on their 
uniforms. We could not be mistaken. It was an 
attack by the enemy in force against some point in our 
lines in front of Petersburg. — " Everybody arise ! sad- 
dle the horses, and have the brigade instantly under 
arms ! " — The order was hardly executed when an aid 
from General Mott arrived at a gallop. — The enemy 
has surprised Fort Steadman, on the front of the Ninth 
Corps. He has captured two or three batteries, and 
pushed his skirmishers on to the City Point railroad. 
The division must hold itself ready to move at a mo- 
ment's notice. A part of the Fifth Corps has already 
moved. 

In a few minutes the tents were down, the baggage 
loaded in the wagons, the troops formed in line, arms 
stacked, and we awaited orders. The cannonade was 
still going on, and the musketry fire rolled continuously. 

705 



706 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

At nine o'clock an orderly brought me a despatch : 
" Hartranft's division of the Ninth Corps has retaken 
Fort Steadman and the adjoining batteries. The enemy- 
has left two thousand prisoners in our hands. His loss 
in killed and wounded must be as much more." 

Now for our turn on the left. It was nearly noon 
when General Humphreys came with General Mott to 
establish himself at the Smith house, where my head- 
quarters were, to be near the line. General Meade, con- 
vinced with good reason that the enemy must have 
weakened his lines in the vicinity of Hatcher's Run in 
order to furnish troops for his attack on Fort Steadman, 
had given orders to capture all the enemy's fortified 
picket lines in front of the Sixth and the Second Corps, 
after which we should push on further if opportunity 
offered. 

Miles, who held the right, attacked first, and was 
completely successful. In my turn, I threw forward 
the Twentieth Indiana and the Seventy-third New 
York, which, under command of Colonel Andrews, 
carried all the rifle-pits in front of us and sent me in a 
hundred prisoners. MacAllister followed immediately, 
and was not less successful at first ; but he very soon 
had more to do than any of us. In consequence of the 
slowness of the Second Division to follow the move- 
ment, and of the shape of the ground, his left was in 
the air. The enemy took advantage of this to attack 
at this point, and retook his rifle-pits. The Elev^enth 
Massachusetts and the One Hundred and Twentieth 
New York returned promptly to the charge, and dis- 
lodged the rebels for the second time. The sharpness 
of the engagement revealing a determination on the 
part of the enemy to regain the lost ground, I hurried 
forward the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New 
York, and followed soon with the rest of the brigade. 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



707 



We did not arrive a moment too soon. The head of 
my column had scarcely passed over a marshy creek 
crossing the road when the enemy began to send a 
shower of shells, with a precision showing a close study, 
on his part, of the distance of the ground. At the same 
time, a firing, coming closer and closer, mingled with 
repeated cheers, told us that the rebels were again 
charging the Third Brigade, with increasing success. 
The left of the Seventy-third New York was even 
carried away when the First Maine, led by Colonel 
Shepherd, charged on the run to stop this reverse 
movement, with the aid of the One Hundred and Tenth 
Pennsylvania. The charge of those two regiments, by 
giving the others time to come into line, held in our 
possession all that the Twentieth Indiana and the Sev- 
enty-third New York had captured from the enemy 
two hours before. Then MacAllister, feeling himself 
strongly supported on his right, retook the offensive, 
and his brigade returned for the third time into the 
pits so obstinately contested. 

MacAllister is a character truly original. From what 
I have related of his services in front of the enemy, the 
reader would doubtless be led to imagine him as hard 
fighters are generally represented, — still young, with 
loud voice, fierce moustache, lofty step, etc. Nothing 
could be further from the truth. MacAllister is a good 
pater familias, having passed his fortieth year. His 
voice is soft and calm ; never, never on any occasion is 
it raised to the pitch of an oath or anything resembling 
it. Not only is his moustache not twisted, but his face 
is as closely shaven as that of an honest pastor. 
Everything about him has the air of simplicity and 
modesty. His habits are those of an anchorite. A 
temperance man, he never touches liquor of any kind, 
not even beer. Tolerant as to others, rigid for himself, 



708 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

he preaches by example only. His staff had full liberty 
to use moderately the liquors he refused himself, and it 
seemed perfectly a matter of course to him, when we 
visited him, that his adjutant, Major Frinkelmeyer, 
should offer us " the stirrup cup." 

As punctual in his religious habits as he was sincere 
in his belief, he had Protestant religious services regu- 
larly on Sunday at his headquarters. The most pleas- 
ant attention we could pay him was, on that day, to 
listen to the sermon of his chaplain. 

His habitual kind-heartedness for the soldier did not 
affect his discipline. When he personally intervened in 
a punishment, he seldom failed to accompany it with a 
reprimand, the tenor and tone of which recalled to the 
culprit the scoldings he had received from his mother 
in his childhood. So that the soldiers among themselves 
called him affectionately " Mother MacAllister." But 
when the day of battle came the mother led on her 
children as a lioness her cubs. Because he was a most 
exemplary man, MacAllister was none the less the most 
energetic soldier. 

But to return to the enemy, who, although driven 
back, did not yet give up the struggle. Between my 
brigade and the First Division, the ground was low and 
marshy, covered with a thicket of brush, where the 
rebels had not thought it necessary to establish a line of 
rifle-pits. It was here that they made a new effort. 
My right, composed of the Fortieth New York and the 
Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania, the two regiments having 
the most conscripts in their ranks, rested there. The 
greater part of them were that day for the first time 
under fire. It was well to have an eye on them. The 
uproar in the woods and the noise still heard along the 
front of the First Division must have shaken their 
nerves. Nevertheless, they showed a bold front, not 



THE GREAT STROKE. 7O9 

being directly engaged. But when they saw the enemy, 
driven from Miles' front, rush upon them with the dash 
which characterized the old soldiers of Lee ; when they 
heard the balls whistling around their ears and falling 
on the trees like hail, they began to drop to the rear in 
a lively manner, with the back bent, and hustling each 
other, hesitating about obeying the earnest appeals of 
the officers and the storming of the sergeants ; in fine, 
more desirous of sheltering themselves against the 
storm of lead than of openly taking flight. I cannot tell 
what might have happened if the road by which we had 
come up had not been thirty or forty paces back and 
parallel to that part of the line. I had there my staff 
and orderlies, who ran down any one attempting to pass 
the line. Stopped by these cavalry charges in detail, 
the conscripts made so comical an appearance that, 
while lavishing the most highly colored epithets upon 
them, we could not help laughing. The laughter, I be- 
lieve, had more effect upon them than the oaths and 
the blows with the fiat of the sabre, and we led them 
back to their positions with so much less difficulty that 
none of us was struck, and that, the old soldiers having 
held firmly, the attack, weakened by their resistance, had 
passed further along across the marsh. 

In that direction, the One Hundred and Twenty- 
fourth New York had been left a little in the rear, be- 
hind a swell of ground. All the men were lying down, 
so as not to be seen by the enemy. On issuing from 
the woods, the rebels, finding before them only a hand- 
ful of skirmishers in retreat, did not hesitate to pursue 
them. This was what Colonel Weygant had foreseen, 
and he had taken his measures accordingly. He allowed 
the assailants to advance as closely as possible without 
discovering his men. When they were but about forty 
paces off, the whole regiment rose as one man, fired a 



7IO FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

deadly volley, and, without reloading, charged with the 
bayonet. It was all done in a turn of the hand. The 
enemy were surrounded without having time to recover 
themselves. It was the Fifty-ninth Alabama, which 
laid down its arms, when its flag had fallen into our 
hands by the death of its defenders. The commander 
was among the number. Colonel Weygant had man- 
aged the affair so well that our loss was insig- 
nificant. 

The loss in the brigade was comparatively heavier in 
officers than in non-commissioned officers and soldiers. 
Colonel Andrews of the Twentieth Indiana was shot 
through the arm, which did not prevent his remaining 
at his post until the end of the day. Colonel Biles of 
the Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania was wounded in the hip. 
In the One Hundred and Tenth, Major Hamilton, com- 
manding the regiment, had scarcely been carried off, 
nearly crushed by the fall of a limb of a tree, when Cap- 
tain Stuart, his successor in command, fell mortally 
wounded. In revenge, the brigade made a large num- 
ber of prisoners, and buried in its front fifty-six dead 
rebels, which implied at least four hundred wounded 
along that short section of the line. These figures 
give an idea of what that first day of the grand fort- 
night of battles which completed his ruin must have 
cost the enemy — in addition even to the four thousand 
men sacrificed by him in the short-lived surprise of Fort 
Steadman. 

It was much more than a serious check to General 
Lee ; it was a complete failure of the plans on which 
his last hopes depended. In the position in which the 
victorious arrival of General Sherman at Goldsborough 
placed him, there remained but one resource by which 
to prolong further the contest ; this was to abandon 
Richmond and Petersburg, and, by uniting his army to 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



711 



that of Johnston, transfer the theatre of war to the very 
heart of the agonizing Confederacy. 

In taking the initiative, by an attack against our 
right, so as to cut our communications with City Point, 
Lee had for an object to bring about the concentration 
of all our forces in that direction. Profiting then by our 
distance from the course he must take, he would make 
his retreat by the Lynchburg railroad, and the roads 
which follow along the right bank of the Appomattox, 
which he could not do in the face of two army corps, 
massed near Hatcher's Run. He had taken his meas- 
ures and made his preparations. We have seen how 
he failed at the beginning of his efforts. Not only was 
Fort Steadman immediately retaken, without displac- 
ing any of our troops, but that portion of his lines 
which he wished above all to have secure was pressed 
much more closely by the capture of the fortified 
picket line which covered it. 

Lee's initiative did not advance or retard by a day 
the general movement of our army. The date for com- 
mencing the movement had been fixed at the 29th of 
March, in the explicit instructions sent on the 24th to 
Generals Meade, Ord, and Sheridan. Nothing was 
changed or modified after the 25th. The principal dis- 
positions were as follows : — 

" I. General Ord will move on the night of the 27th, 
to cross the James, and join the Army of the Potomac, 
with three divisions, two of white and one of colored 
troops. He will leave the latter under the orders of 
General Parke, commanding the Ninth Corps, and will 
hold himself in reserve on the left of the army, with 
the two other divisions. 

" 2. On the morning of the 29th, the army will march 
to the left, with the twofold object of forcing the enemy 
from his position in front of Petersburg, by a turning 



712 FOUR YEARS WITH THE TOTOMAC ARMY. 

movement, and of assuring the success of the cavalry 
under the command of General Sheridan, who will 
start at the same time to cut the Lynchburg and the 
Danville railroads. The two army corps (the Second 
and the Fifth) will march first, in two columns, by the 
two roads which cross Hatcher's Run the nearest to 
our lines. 

" 3. General Parke will remain in command of the 
lines in front of Petersburg, and will defend City Point 
with the entire Ninth Corps, one colored division from 
the Army of the James, the dismounted cavalry, the 
engineer troops, and the headquarters guards. If the 
Sixth Corps should also be moved out, the Ninth will 
not extend beyond the works at the Weldon railroad. 

" 4. In the absence of General Ord, General Weitzel 
will have command of the troops left to the north of 
the James. He must exercise the utmost vigilance on 
his front, and profit by every favorable occasion which 
may be left him to penetrate the enemy's lines. Every 
success of this kind must be followed up with great 
promptness, abandoning all that part of our positions, 
except the closed redoubts. 

" 5. The extremely wooded nature of the country in 
which the army is about to operate rendering imprac- 
ticable the use of a large amount of artillery, the num- 
ber of pieces will be reduced to four or six per division, 
at the option of the generals commanding (Meade, Ord, 
and Sheridan). 

" 6. All the troops, without exception, will carry four 
days' rations in their haversacks, and eight days' in the 
wagons. Each man will carry sixty rounds of ammuni- 
tion ; a like amount will follow in the wagons." 

These instructions ended by the following recom- 
mendations : " A large part of the armies operating 
against Richmond is left behind. The enemy, know- 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



713 



ing this, may consider it as his only chance to strip 
his works, leaving therein only a slight line, while he 
will throw the rest upon our troops in motion, to after- 
ward return to his positions. It cannot be too strongly 
urged upon the commanders of the troops left in the 
trenches not to allow this to be done without taking 
advantage of it. If the enemy advances out of his 
lines to attack, that fact alone may be considered as 
almost conclusive proof of a sufficient enfeebling of his 
works. You will particularly enjoin upon the com- 
manders of corps which may be attacked not to await 
the orders of the general commanding the army to 
which they belong, but to act promptly, advising their 
superior officer of their action. You will enjoin the 
chiefs of division to the same effect, for the case where 
other members of their corps may be engaged. I es- 
pecially dwell on the importance of following up every 
advantage gained over the enemy." 

General Sheridan, having to operate separately, re- 
ceived official instructions which circumstances ren- 
dered useless. 

The hour for the decisive blow had arrived. We 
received the news with the greatest satisfaction. For 
some time we had begun to fear lest that honor, at 
least in part, would be taken from us. The rapid prog- 
ress of Sherman towards the North, and his arrival at 
Goldsborough, while giving us great joy, was not with- 
out causing us some inquietude in the sense that, if he 
joined us before the fall of Richmond, the glory of the 
Army of the Potomac would be, in that event, half ob- 
scured. The desperate character of our battles, the 
greatness and persistence of our efforts, the immensity 
of our losses, our constancy as inalterable in adverse as 
in good fortune, — all these would become dim in the 
face of the easy triumphs of the Western armies through 



714 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

Georgia and the two Carol inas. It would be said 
the Army of the Potomac was not able to make an 
end of the rebel army in Virginia, and, in order to take 
Richmond, it was necessary that the Western army 
should come from the banks of the Mississippi, to help 
it to victory on its own ground. But thank God ! we 
did not have to suffer the humiliation, after our four 
years of battle, sufferings, and privation, of losing the 
glorious fruit when it was within our grasp. 

Well, on the 29th of March, 1865, we left our camps 
no more to return to them. Never had the soldiers 
taken up their arms with a firmer grasp ; never had the 
ofificers given their commands in a more stirring voice. 
Forward ! March ! We felt in the air the magnetism 
of the dawn of the day of supreme triumph. Wq de- 
parted joyfully, and crossed Hatcher's Run without 
meeting the enemy. The Second Corps was promptly 
formed in line of battle in front of the fortified line, 
which turned towards the northwest, following the 
course of the river, while the Fifth Corps, marching 
further to the left, drove in the advance posts of the 
enemy on the Boydton road as far as the White Oak 
road, in front of Burgess mill. Grant and Meade 
came up promptly behind us, and their presence 
was an indication that something decisive was con- 
templated. 

As the enemy did not present himself, we advanced 
to meet him through the woods ; but he did not come 
out of his works. ' It was at another point that he was 
preparing to prevent our attack. At nine o'clock in the 
evening we were installed in a line of works constructed 
and abandoned by the rebels. The two divisions of 
General Ord had come into the line between the Sixth 
and the Second Corps, which allowed General Hum- 
phreys to extend, without a break, beyond the Boydton 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



715 



road, to the same point where he had fought on the 
27th of October preceding. 

In the night all operations were stopped by detesta- 
ble weather. The rain, falling in torrents, soaked the 
ground, so that the roads were impracticable for artil- 
lery and ammunition wagons. It was necessary to 
repair them as well as possible by covering the ruts 
with branches of trees or "corduroying," or by open- 
ing new roads through the forest. This work occu- 
pied part of the troops, while the others, with mar- 
vellous rapidity, threw up temporary intrenchments to 
guard against any possible attack by the enemy. 

The 30th was thus lost for the offensive, but not for 
the defensive. General Lee set actively to work to 
mass on his right all the force of which he could dis- 
pose without absolutely stripping that heavy defensive 
line which General Grant had forced him to extend 
for a length of more than thirty miles. These tactics 
had served him twice, perhaps they might for the 
third time. 

On the 31st, at two o'clock in the morning, the 
weather having somewhat improved, the order was 
given to us to march by the left flank. The Second 
Division, now commanded by General William Hays, 
extended along the line which the brigades of Pierce 
and MacAllister completed. My brigade was in re- 
serve behind the First Division, which Miles had 
already massed along the Boydton road. Warren, who 
had remained there up to this time, pushed his corps 
further out against the White Oak road, where the 
Confederates had assembled the greater part of their 
forces. It was at this point that they awaited the mo- 
ment to strike. The appearance of General Winthrop's 
brigade, which was skirmishing in the advance, was the 
sio-nal to them to leave their intrenchments and throw 



7l6 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

themselves on the division of Ayres, which had the 
advance. The blow was so violent that the division fell 
back, not without disorder, upon Crawford's division, 
which was in its turn shaken. But Warren had made 
his dispositions in this favorite manoeuvre of the Con- 
federates. His three divisions were formed in echelon, 
so that the impetuous rush of the assailants was dimin- 
ished on the first, became feeble as it struck the second, 
and died out against the third. Griffin lemained firm 
as a rock, and the broken mass fell rolling back. 

All this happened close to us. Not a hurrah, not a 
volley was fired which we did not hear distinctly. But 
the woods interposed as a curtain, and we could see 
nothing. Under such circumstances, it is very exciting 
to listen. Thus we were silent when we saw the First 
Division, in front of us, leap over the parapet which 
covered it and disappear in the woods in the direction 
of the battle. At the same time, one of General Hum- 
phreys' aids brought me the order to follow. 

I was to sustain Miles ; but he did not give us the 
opportunity to come to his assistance. With his accus- 
tomed promptness, he fell upon the flank of the enemy's 
column, already retiring from Griffin's front. Between 
the two, the Confederates were beaten and driven back 
in a lively manner to their intrenchments on the White 
Oak road, which a large part of them did not succeed 
in reaching. We took many prisoners, and the greater 
part of their wounded remained in our hands. The 
Fifty-sixth Virginia was said to have been captured 
almost entire by Chamberlain's brigade of the Fifth 
Corps. 

Miles, continuing his advance, soon left an interval 
between his right and the Boydton road, which I re- 
ceived orders to fill as it enlarged. In this movement, 
gradually made, I had to change position twice in less 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



1^1 



than an hour, and I left behind me two lines of intrench- 
ments almost finished, so much quickness had my men 
acquired in this kind of work. When Miles ceased 
his movement, the sun being already low, our last 
position of the day was solidly established under a very 
brisk artillery fire. The enemy's skirmishers had been 
driven back behind the principal line, from which our 
men prevented their advancing a second time. 

At about four miles from the point which the Fifth 
Corps had reached, the White Oak road was crossed 
by other roads, making an intersection known as Five 
Forks. It was too important a point not to be sharply 
contested. The enemy had accordingly intrenched 
and occupied it. The evening before, Sheridan, on 
arriving at Dinwiddle, had sent Merritt to examine the 
point, and the latter had found it occupied by a force 
too large to be handled by the cavalry at his disposal. 

Dinwiddle Court House is, as its name implies, a 
county seat. The Boydton road passes through it seven 
to eight miles to the rear and left of the position then 
occupied by the Second Corps. Five Forks forms al- 
most an isosceles triangle with these two points, the 
vertex of which is at Burgess mill, and the two sides 
formed the one by the White Oak road, from the east to 
the west, and the one, from northeast to southwest, by 
the Boydton road. From Five Forks to Dinwiddle, the 
base is formed by a road describing a concave curve 
forking, near its centre, in both directions. 

On the 31st, while the enemy was engaged with War- 
ren in front of the White Oak road, Sheridan, pushing 
his cavalry further on the left, seized the occasion, and 
took possession of Five Forks, without meeting much 
resistance. But when the troops, driven back by the 
Fifth Corps, had returned to their intrenchments, eager 
to repair their check, they poured out in the direction 



7l8 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMV. 

of Sheridan, and, having joined their cavalry, at- 
tacked him so sharply that he was compelled to give 
way before numbers, and retire to Dinwiddle. He fell 
back, contesting every step of the way, the most of the 
time his cavalry fighting dismounted, leaving one-fourth 
of his men as horse-holders. Arriving near Dinwiddle, 
Sheridan, profiting by some intrenchments which were 
there, closed up and concentrated his line, and, facing 
the enemy, received him so warmly that he could make 
no further advance. Night coming on, Lee recalled his 
two divisions to Five Forks. 

The Fifth Corps came very near cutting off their re- 
treat. As soon as Sheridan's position was known at 
headquarters, orders had been hurried to Warren tO' 
march to his aid. Unfortunately, the order did not reach 
him until after dark, causmg delay in the movement. 
Nevertheless, Ayres* division, hurried forward first by 
the Boydton road, would doubtless have reached Din- 
widdle almost as quickly as by daylight if the destruc- 
tion of a bridge over Gravelly Run had not stopped him. 
He had to rebuild the bridge, which delayed him some 
hours. So that when Ayres, having taken a crossroad 
to the right, came out from the road from Dinwiddle to 
Five Forks at daylight, he found there our cavalry. 
The enemy had already retired, also escaping War- 
ren, who came up with his two other divisions. The 
pursuit, begun by the cavalry, was continued in connec- 
tion with the infantry, the two corps having united un- 
der the command of General Sheridan. 

The cavalry struck directly at Five Forks, and, by a 
number of vigorous charges, drove the enemy into his 
intrenchments. At the same time, Sheridan sent the 
Fifth Corps forward on the right, so as to turn the Con- 
federates' left, and strike them on the fiank and rear, 
while General Merritt should attract their attention on. 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



719 



the other flank by active demonstrations. As they had 
not met Warren, they thought him still in the vicinity 
of the Boydton road, and, having had to do thus far with 
the cavalry alone, which pressed upon their front and 
extended beyond their right, they saw in Merritt's move- 
ments only the development of a turning attack, against 
which it was important above all to guard. 

However, behind this curtain of cavalry moving 
noisily, Warren was silently making his prescribed 
manoeuvre. Ayres and Crawford in the front, each with 
two brigades deployed in two lines, and the third in rear 
with the same formation, Griffin marched in reserve on 
the turning wing by battalions in mass. The whole 
corps advanced, taking its direction by the sun, moving 
with a steady step, over a thousand obstacles, down into 
the ravines and over the hillocks, through the fields and 
the thick woods. 

In order still better to cover the movement. General 
McKenzie, who had just rejoined the army with a cav- 
alry reenforcement, received orders to sweep the White 
Oak road, between Five Forks and the point where it 
struck the right of Lee's lines. He found some force 
of the enemy, which he drove back towards the Boydton 
road, thus providing against any attack on Warren's 
right. 

The Fifth Corps came upon the left of the Confed- 
erate force isolated at Five Forks, about four o'clock in 
the afternoon. Ayres, who was the nearest to the 
enemy, immediately changed front, and, after having 
driven in the pickets, came upon the intrenchments, 
forming a right angle with the principal line for a dis- 
tance of more than a hundred yards The division im- 
mediately charged with the bayonet, and carried the 
works, capturing more than a thousand prisoners. 

This change of front and attack were executed so 



720 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

promptly that Crawford, having a much more extended 
arc of a circle to pass over, had not been able to keep 
the line. Griffin threw himself into the interval, and, 
connectmg with Ayres, captured on his front fifteen 
hundred prisoners. When Crawford, in his turn, had 
finished his movement, he found he was in the only road 
by which the enemy could retreat, so that the latter, 
finding himself attacked on three sides at once, had no 
other resource than to lay down his arms. 

A part of the enemy still held a traverse intrenched 
on their extreme right. The troops, somewhat disor- 
ganized by the battle at the end of a long and severe 
march, hesitated before this new obstacle, and lost time 
skirmishing. General Warren, coming up, went to the 
front, and called on them, both by voice and gesture, to 
follow him. The whole force immediately moved for- 
ward on a bayonet charge. The intrenchment was 
carried and its defenders made prisoners. Of the two 
Confederate divisions of Pickett and Bushrod Johnson, 
hardly a handful succeeded in escaping, pursued with 
the sabre at their backs by the cavalry of Merritt and 
McKenzie. This victory was so much the more brill- 
iant that it cost less than a thousand men, while the 
enemy lost five thousand prisoners, without counting 
the dead and wounded, the artillery and colors left in 
our hands. The attack made by the enemy at Five 
Forks had the same result as that of Fort Steadman, 
six days before ; a moment of ephemeral success fol- 
lowed by a crushing defeat. In the thinned-out ranks 
of the defenders of Petersburg, the loss of twelve thou- 
sand men made a terrible gap. 

The battle was scarcely over when General Warren 
sent for orders to General Sheridan, and received in 
reply: "Major-General Warren, commanding the Fifth 
Corps, is relieved of his command ; he will report imme- 



THE GREAT STROKE. 72 I 

diately to Lieutenant-General Grant, commanding the 
armies of the United States, for orders." This news, 
spread everywhere along with that of the victory, caused 
a general surprise, and gave rise to different conjec- 
tures. Even to-day it seems to me that the matter is 
not entirely clear. In his official report. General Sher- 
idan explains the step in these terms : " General War- 
ren did not exert himself to get up his corps as rapidly 
as he might have done, and his manner gave me the 
impression that he wished the sun to go down before 
dispositions for the attack could be completed." Then, 
speaking of the battle, " During the engagement por- 
tions of his line gave way when not exposed to a heavy 
fire, and simply from a want of confidence on the part 
of the troops, which General Warren did not exert 
himself to inspire." To these imputations General 
Warren replied by a detailed justification of his military 
conduct on the occasion. It is probable that the real 
cause is to be sought elsewhere : perhaps in some 
details in the first personal contact between these two 
generals, who had never met before. In such a case, 
the edgewise meeting of some crooked atoms might be 
sufficient to arouse irritability without cause between 
men who, if they knew each other better, would become 
attached by mutual esteem. On a field of battle, in 
the heat of action, the first impressions are made 
stronger, instead of being softened down, and the least 
sting may be changed to a wound. However it may 
have been on this occasion, Warren was transferred to 
the Department of the Mississippi, Griffin took his 
place at the head of the Fifth Corps, and the incident 
was forgotten in the shock of armies and the whirlwind 
of events. 

During the series of battles from Five Forks to Din- 
widdle, and from Dinwiddle to Five Forks, the left of 



722 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

the Second Corps, of which I formed a part, was almost 
contiriually in motion. General Humphreys governed 
his movements by those of the Fifth Corps. Before 
morning, when Warren moved out to go to Sheridan's 
assistance, we had fallen back to the return intrench- 
ments which covered the Boydton road. In the after- 
noon, my brigade had been retired to the rear line, on 
the side towards the sawmill, where the firing, fre- 
quently increased in sharpness, gave reason to fear an 
attack in force. When Sheridan returned to Five 
Forks, we hastened to retake our position of the night 
before. 

It was dark when we arrived, and the head of my 
column filed rapidly along the intrenchments, when a 
great clamor, prolonged by hurrahs, arose suddenly 
near us. Our movement was stopped, ranks closed up, 
the clicking of gun-locks ran along the whole line, and 
the gun-barrels were thrust over the parapet. All 
eyes peered into the darkness to discover the moving 
mass of the assailants ; all ears were stretched to catch 
the sound of their footsteps ; but there was no move- 
ment, and the cheering died away. As, besides, our 
pickets did not come in, T sent some men to find out 
the meaning of the noise, and we soon learned that 
these resounding cheers were the rejoicing of the 
enemy over the entire destruction of Sheridan's forces, 
cavalry, infantry, artillery wagons, etc. We knew 
what the facts were. The illusion was of short dura- 
tion, for the truth was soon told them by our advance 
posts, and the dull silence of discouragement succeeded 
to the noisy outburst of enthusiasm. 

The silence, however, did not last long. My brigade 
was scarcely established in its position on the right 
of the First Division when I received orders to push on 
a partial attack in front, in order to be assured whether 



• THE GREAT STROKE. 723 

the enemy continued to hold his lines in force, or if he 
had weakened sufficiently to permit me to enter. I 
immediately called on Colonel Burns of the Seventy- 
third New York. Burns was the man to take charge 
of the business. Wrong-headed and good-hearted, like 
most Irishmen a desperate fighter ; but clear of percep- 
tion, and of good judgment, and steady in time of peril ; 
better under fire than anywhere else. Besides his own 
regiment, I put two others under his orders, both well 
commanded : the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth 
New York, under Lieutenant-Colonel Weygant ; and 
the other, One Hundred and Tenth Pennsylvania, under 
Captain F. Stewart. The three regiments were formed 
in line in front of the parapet ; the seven others were 
stretched out to fill the space left vacant. 

Night attacks are almost impracticable in the woods. 
The darkness is deeper ; difficulties multiply at every 
step ; officers and men are lost to view in an instant ; the 
ranks get mingled together, are broken and scattered ; 
trees stop the men sometimes as obstacles, but much 
oftener as shelter from the balls. The force starts out 
in line of battle ; it reaches its point of attack in a col- 
umn in disorder, and at the first volley from the enemy 
it decamps in confusion. I had therefore preferred as 
point of attack a cleared field which stretched in front 
of us to the enemy's pickets. The moon, half obscured 
and low down in the heavens, permits me to follow their 
movements for some time. 

The line advanced silently and in good order, 
not a man left behind. Soon it disappeared in the 
obscurity, and we remained in suspense for several 
minutes. Then a flash through the obscurity, a 
report of a shot, other flashes and other reports. 

The line continued to advance without reply. Then 
the whole border of the woods crackled from one end 



724 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

to the Other. Finally, a brilliant jet of flame crossed 
the field and lighted up the heavens like a flash of 
lightning ; a loud thunder-clap shook the atmosphere, 
followed by the cry, Forward ! given in chorus like an 
echo ; and the three regiments charged the enemy's 
rifle-pits on the run. 

From that moment there was only a great tumult of 
gun shots, shouts, and tramping through the dead wood 
and broken branches. The rifle-pits had been carried, 
of course ; but behind them was found a thick wood, 
obstructed with fallen trees. The men engaged in this 
thicket had no longer even the uncertain light of the 
moon to direct them, as she had sunk below the hori- 
zon. It being impossible to go further, they posted 
themselves as advantageously as possible, continuing 
the firing as well as they could on the rebels scattered 
around them. 

The briskness of the firing sufficiently demonstrated 
that the enemy had not stripped his line in front of us. 
The object of the reconnoissance being accomplished, 
General Mott sent me orders to retire the three regi- 
ments. 

They came out of the woods leisurely, and reformed 
their line along the borders of the open field. Then, 
certain of leaving no one behind, they retreated with 
the same precision as if they had been on the drill 
ground. They retired thus, continually under fire, at 
the same pace and in the same order in which they had 
advanced. In front of the breastworks, where the balls 
were still flying and where some of them knew that I 
was present, they halted until Colonel Burns was cer- 
tain that the position behind the parapet was free. 
Then only did they, at his command, leap over it. 

The engagement was of itself of no importance. 
We gained but a few prisoners by it, and we lost about 



THE GREAT STROKE. 725 

thirty men and a captain of the One Hundred and 
Twenty-fourth, who was killed. But I have thought it 
well to relate the details, in order to show what soldiers 
our volunteers had become, and how their officers com- 
manded them in the latter days of the war. 

This engagement was a signal for a series of similar 
attacks, which succeeded each other without cessation 
during the rest of the night. As soon as one was over, 
another began on a different point. Towards Hatcher's 
Run and Petersburg they were strongly supported by 
the artillery. From a distance we surveyed the lumi- 
nous course of the shells as they passed each other in 
the air, and listened to the deep sound of the guns 
which kept the two armies on the alert. The soldiers 
said to each other : " Things are moving ; it will be 
warm to-morrow." 

After the battle of Five Forks, General Grant had 
but one fear : this was that the enemy would take 
advantage of the night to evacuate his works. This 
is the reason that he kept up a continual attack along 
the whole line, ready to throw the troops in pursuit if 
he should not succeed in keeping the enemy close in 
his intrenchments, and also why he sent Miles to reen- 
force Sheridan at Five Forks, in case General Lee 
should endeavor to pass over him by retreating along 
the White Oak road. 

The First Division having been sent out, I received 
orders at two o'clock in the morning (April 2) to take 
my -brigade back immediately on the Boydton road. 
The order was accompanied by the official information 
that at four o'clock the Sixth Corps and the Ninth were 
to assault, the one in front of Fort Fisher (Peeble's 
house), and the other in front of Fort Hell (now Fort 
Sedgwick). The great day had arrived. 

We filed through the woods. An aid led me to the po- 



726 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sition I was to occupy in the intrenchments which cover 
the road and cross it behind the Rainie house, where 
General Humphreys had his headquarters. Five batter- 
ies were there, the guns in position, the teams in rear, 
the ammunition wagons open, the artillerymen at their 
posts. Great fires lighted up the scene. I disposed 
my first tv/o regiments between the batteries furthest 
off. Where was the third .-' Had it got lost in the 
marshy ground we had passed over ? Had it passed by 
the point where we left the road .'' My aids were sent 
out in search. 

At this moment a desperate firing broke out in the 
woods in front of us, and exactly in front of the batter- 
ies which were not yet protected. I turned the com- 
mand over to the senior of the two colonels, with a few 
rapid instructions, and went in search of the missing 
troops. I met groups of stragglers joining the two 
regiments in position. — " Where are the others ? " — 
" They are coming, general. We got lost in the swamp ; 
now they have found the road." All right. But time 
presses ; I gallop to meet them on the open ground 
between the road and the batteries. 

What fine soldiers were those cannoneers ! Shells 
rained around them ; balls whistled everywhere through 
the air, telling them that the enemy was very near. If 
our men gave way, the rebels would not be long in fall- 
ing on the guns. Nevertheless, they stood there as 
calm as their pieces, apparently indifferent to what was 
passing in the woods. The ofBcers and gunners were 
looking over the parapets, watching for the moment 
when the enemy should appear in the open ground, to 
sweep them with canister. 

One of my aids, Lieutenant Keene, joined me at a 
gallop, reporting that three regiments were in the 
works farther along the line. When the attack was 



THE GREAT STROKE. 727 

made, they had thrown themselves there to cover the 
guns left at that point without infantry support. The 
other regiments were in line at the entrance into the 
woods, awaiting orders. I ordered him to go and bring 
them on the double quick to fill the vacant space. — 
Keene departed. He had not gone twenty steps when 
his hat was carried away by a shell. The blood gushed 
forth from his nose. Somewhat stunned, he felt of his 
head, shook himself together; then, settling in his stir- 
rups, went on his way, as if nothing had happened. 

When my last, regiments came up, the attack lost 
ground rapidly. The firing became more distant, and 
soon died away in the depths of the forest. 

Where did that attack come from ? What troops had 
repulsed it ? How and by what roads had the enemy 
been able to penetrate so far in rear of the intrench- 
ments I had hardly left ? I never learned. It was one 
of those incidents which often occur in the confusion of 
great battles. Perhaps the explanation might be found 
in some brigade or division report. But, in the midst of 
the brilliant events of that day, it disappeared like a 
brook in the ocean. 

At the first glimpse of daylight, the interrupted move- 
ment was completed, and my brigade took the position 
which had been assigned to it, with a reenforcement of 
four hundred and fifty convalescents of the First Divis- 
ion, placed temporarily under my command. 

The great uproar of artillery from Petersburg had 
reached its highest point when punctually at four 
o'clock in the morning Parke and Wright threw for- 
ward their assaulting columns. Parke forced the first 
line of the enemy where Port Mahone was ; but, since 
the famous affair of the mine, the enemy had made a 
second line, equally strong, at some distance in the rear, 
and the Ninth Corps was stopped there. Wright car- 



']2Z FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

riecl everything before him in front of Fort Fisher, the 
Sixth Corps having penetrated the vast enceinte, so long 
impenetrable. Ord succeeded also in breaking through 
near Hatcher's Run, with two divisions of the Twenty- 
fourth Corps, commanded by Gibbon. The two corps, 
united, turned their faces to the right, towards Peters- 
burg. Two closed redoubts were found in the plain. 
Gibbon captured both, but not without the most in- 
trepid resistance from one of them. 

All that portion of Lee's army which was in front of 
the Second Corps, seeing its road to the city cut off, re- 
treated in the direction of Sutherland Station, on the 
Lynchburg railroad. The guns disappeared rapidly 
from the embrasures, while the men filed out on the run 
behind the intrenchments. Deployed as we were on a 
long line, a third of which was in return, some time was 
necessary for us to form in column on the Boydton 
road. When we reached Burgess mill, the enemy had 
disappeared. 

However, he was not to escape us completely. At 
the first news of the successful assault, Sheridan had 
hastened to send back his first division to Humphreys. 
Miles returned in haste by way of the White Oak road, 
when, the current of retreating rebels passing in his 
reach, he began an energetic pursuit along the Claiborne 
road. He struck them near the station, where they, at 
first, made an obstinate resistance. But Sheridan came 
up, overlapping their right. They gave way and fled in 
the greatest disorder, by the road running along the 
Appomattox, abandoning their guns and losing a large 
number of prisoners. 

In the meanwhile, we left behind us the fine fortifica- 
tions with which the rebel engineers had covered the 
approaches to Burgess mill, and hurried on towards 
Petersburg by the Boydton road, now completely open. 



THE GREAT STROKE. 



729 



It was a beautiful day. The spring sun laughed amongst 
the new foliage. Heaven and earth appeared to rejoice 
in our triumph. The men, forgetting the fatigues of 
the last days and the sleepless nights, marched with a 
joyous step, running and laughing with each other. On 
the right and on the left, our flankers picked up pris- 
oners, who surrendered with a good grace, and took 
their place between our regiments without showing any 
ill-temper. They knew that the war was finished by a 
blow, and were far from regretting it. 

On approaching the city, we passed out of the woods 
to cross a wide plain. We had arrived near a house of 
poor appearance, situated about fifty yards from the 
road, when an electric movement ran through the ranks. 
Attention ! There is General Grant ! Every one 
straightened himself up, adjusted his equipments. The 
general, seated on a front veranda, his legendary cigar 
in his mouth, looked on us passing by, probably think- 
ing of something entirely different. The door was like 
the entrance to a beehive. Staff officers were crowding 
around ; horsemen were coming and going on a gallop. 
All was motion and life around the lieutenant-general. 
He alone preserved his habitual calm ; but through that 
apparent impassibility shone the pride of triumph and of 
satisfaction for the task accomplished. 

Everything, however, was not yet over. The cannon 
were heard grumbling, and between us and Petersburg 
there was still a line of works important enough to at 
least give the enemy time to collect himself. In order 
to strengthen his position, he had even endeavored to 
recapture some positions from the Ninth Corps. It was 
in one of these offensive efforts, unsuccessful though 
vigorously made, that General A. P. Hill was killed. 
He had played a great part in the war, and had served 
the cause of secession with as much constancy as ability. 



730 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

He perished with it, and was buried in the same wind- 
ing-sheet.' 

The remainder of the day passed in putting the 
artillery in position, and in connecting our movements 
with those of the Sixth and the Twenty-fourth Corps, 
so as to carry the city by assault, if the enemy persisted 
in defending it. But he had no such idea. General 
Lee wished only to gain the night, the protector of dis- 
orderly retreats. 

This memorable day was Sunday. While at Peters- 
burg the last rampart of the rebellion was falling in 
pieces, its president was in Richmond, calling in vain on 
the Lord of Hosts. Mr. Jefferson Davis was at St. 
Paul's Church, where he received a despatch, the tenor 
of which did not permit him to hear the end of the 
religious service. It was the Venit smnnia dies of the 
Southern Confederacy. Twelve hours were left to its 
government to pack up and leave. 

* A. P. Hill was killed near the Boydton road, after the lines were 
broken by the Sixth Corps, by some soldiers away from their com- 
mands. — Trans. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE DENOUEMENT. 

Evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond — The pursuit — Arrival at 
Jetersville — The Confederates at Amelia Court House — Engage- 
ments of the rearguard — Fight at Deatonsville — Captures and 
trophies — A great cast of the net — Death of General Read — Opin- 
ion of a Confederate sergeant — The baggage — Meeting General 
Sheridan — High Bridge — The last battle of the Second Corps — 
Communications between Grant and Lee — The coup de grace — The 
Confederate army lays down its arms — Final tableau. 

During the night of the 2d to the 3d of April, General 
Lee evacuated Petersburg and Richmond simulta- 
neously. All the troops he had left were assembled at 
Chesterfield Court House, a central point, at nearly 
equal distance from both cities, and from there, in the 
morning, they began their movement to join Johnston's 
army in North Carolina. This was their only chance 
of escaping utter destruction. General Grant, who was 
well aware of this, was ready. The pursuit began im- 
mediately, so that the occupation of the two cities was 
left principally to the Twenty-fifth Corps, composed of 
colored troops. The division placed temporarily under 
the orders of Parke was put in charge of Petersburg, 
an,d the two others, under Weitzel, took possession of 
Richmond. 

The last and supreme humiliation of these arrogant 
despisers of humanity ! At the very seat itself of their 
overturned government, their property and their lives 
were under the protection of the black man, to whom 
they had refused a place in the great human family. 
At this last hour of the great iniquity, the characters of 

731 



'J 2)2 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC AR.MY, 

both the oppressor and the oppressed were made mani- 
fest without disguise. The associates of Jefferson 
Davis delivered to the flames the city they could no 
longer defend, and which the flames would have utter- 
ly devoured but for the colored soldiers of Weitzel, who 
saved two-thirds of it. The whole business quarter, the 
richest and most thickly inhabited, was reduced to 
ashes. Its piled-up ruins will for a long time tell what 
were the men who sacrificed their country to their 
depraved ambitions, with the sole object of perpetuating 
their barbarous rule over a soil torn from American 
civilization. 

The route selected by General Lee was, on leaving 
Chesterfield, to cross the Appomattox at Good's bridge, 
in order to strike the Danville railroad at Amelia Court 
House. From there he hoped to precede us at Burks- 
ville, the point of intersection with the Lynchburg rail- 
road ; if he succeeded in passing that point before we' 
were able to oppose him, he was nearly certain to effect 
a junction with Johnston, who was stretching out his 
left from Smithfield to meet him. The common objec- 
tive, then, was Burksville. Pursuers and pursued hur- 
ried in that direction with an equal ardor. In that race 
the advantages were balanced, for, if the Confederates 
had ten or twelve hours advance of us, our route was 
shorter than theirs by a distance nearly equivalent to 
the difference in time. 

The two armies started on the race by parallel roads, 
Lee to the north and Grant to the south of the Appo- 
mattox. Sheridan, who had remained during the even- 
ing before not far from Five Forks, took the lead, with 
all his cavalry, followed by the Fifth Corps, which had 
camped at Sutherland. The Second Corps marched at 
daylight by the Appomattox river road, and the Sixth 
followed closely. — General Ord, with the greater part 



THE DENOUEMENT. 



of the Armv of the James, marched along the line of the 
Lynchburg railroad, which the Ninth Corps was ordered 
to protect behind him. 

Thus General Grant had divided his forces into two 
columns, and, while Ord pushed towards Burksville. 
Sheridan and Meade took a straight line to strike the 
Danville railroad a little farther to the north, at Jeters- 
ville Station. 

Sheridan arrived there first, during the 4th, at the 
time when Lee had just reached Amelia Court House, 
and, as he was considerably in advance of Meade, he 
intrenched in order to give ISIeade plenty of time to 
join him. We had been somewhat delayed in our 
march by the necessity of repairing the roads, or of 
leaving the artillery and trains behind. In spite of all 
possible diligence, it was not until the afternoon of the 
5th that we reached Jetersville. But, during these 
twenty-four hours, Lee had not thought himself strong 
enough to engage in a doubtful battle against the six- 
teen or eighteen thousand men who barred his way. 

Everything was turning against him. Adverse fort- 
une struck him a hard blow in depriving him of the 
provisions on which he had relied to supply his army. 
A lar-e train ordered from Danville on the 2d was to 
wait for him at Amelia Court House. It happened 
that the rebel government, having need of the cars for 
its hurried removal, had ordered the conductor to take 
them on to Richmond. He did not understand that they 
wished the empty cars, and. without unloadmg, contni- 
ued on his way, taking the rations with him. 

Lee's soldiers, on leaving Petersburg, had hardly a 
day's rations with them. The greater part had eaten 
nothing for twenty-four hours when they arrived at 
Amelia Court House. They employed the day of the 
5th in foraging to pick up what they could find in the 



734 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

neighborhood ; a very insufficient resource, in a country 
more than impoverished. And, by this delay, the last 
chance of joining Johnston was lost. 

During the night of the 5th to 6th, the Confederates 
were compelled to start on their road ; we were upon 
them. Already in the afternoon, General Davies, with 
a brigade of cavalry, had captured five pieces of artil- 
lery, and burned a hundred and eighty wagons, at Paine's 
crossroads. The rebels hurried forward as fast as the 
increasing difificulties permitted, for forage was lacking 
to them as well as provisions, and the animals were 
feeble from hunger, as well as the men. Now their only 
hope was to reach Farmville before us, so as by a detour 
to regain the direction towards North Carolina, or to 
reach Lynchburg, where they had a supply of provis- 
ions. But the nearer the stag approaches the end of 
his course, the more ardently does the pack hurry on 
his trail. At daylight the whole army was put in 
motion. 

The cavalry, supported by the Sixth Corps, resumed 
its march parallel to the enemy's column. Griffin, pass- 
ing by Amelia Court House, which had been evacuated," 
kept to the left, upon the flank of the Confederates, 
while Humphreys pressed closely upon their rearguard. 
Finally, Ord, reaching Burksville, marched rapidly 
upon Farmville, in order to destroy the bridge at that 
point, towards which Lee was pushing the head of his 
column with equal haste. 

It was about nine o'clock in the morning when our 
division caught up with the rearguard of the enemy, 
near Salt Sulphur Spring. General Mott communicated 
his instructions to me while my regiments were rapidly 
advancing. Ten minutes after, we were engaged with 
the enemy. The Twentieth Indiana, deployed as skir- 
mishers and supported by the One Hundred and 



THE DENOUEMENT. 73c 

Twenty-fourth New York, had rapidly ascended a hill, 
and begun to drive the rebels, who fell back along the 
Deatonsville road. 

We advanced firing, with a rapid step, when Mott, 
wishing to examine for himself the dispositions I had 
made, came to join me on the skirmish line. — " Every- 
thing goes along finely," he said. " Push on vigorously, 
and try to reach the wagons which are a short distance 
away. If you capture them, it is quite probable 
you may find a commission of major-general." — He 
had hardly stepped back four paces when the sound of 
a ball striking against leather made me turn my head. 
I remarked a hurried movement among the staff officers. 
Several leaped from their horses, and, in the midst of a 
group, I saw the general stretched on the ground. A 
ball had gone through his leg, passing between the two 
bones below the knee. When he saw me near him, he 
raised himself on his elbow to say to me : — " You have 
command of the division. You already know your 
instructions ; I have nothing to add. Carry them out 
vigorously. Good-luck and good-bye." — He was car- 
ried off on a litter, suffering less from physical pain than 
from moral disappointment at not being able to assist at 
the denouement of the drama in which he had played 
for four years a part as meritorious as distinguished. 

The movement was continued without interruption. 
The First Brigade, now commanded by Colonel Shep- 
hard of the First Maine, and strengthened by two regi- 
ments, continued to advance in line of battle, behind its 
skirmishing line, whose dash gave the enemy no time to 
halt. The rebels were pressed so closely that, a favor- 
able position presenting itself to them to make a stand 
around a large farmhouse, they were driven from it 
before they were able to cover themselves with a slight 
barricade hurriedly sketched out. 



736 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

However, a little further on, there was a halt, A 
body of Confederate cavalry had placed a battery in a 
good position to sweep a piece of open ground, extend- 
ing to the right of the road. The First Division was 
hurrying up on that side, but, marching from Jetersville 
by a longer road than ours, it had not been able to join 
us, and our skirmishers alone prolonged our line of 
battle. To assist them, I ordered forward a section of 
the Eleventh New York battery. A lively cannonade 
followed, to such good purpose that soon guns and 
horsemen disappeared before them. 

During the engagement, General Humphreys had 
come up on the line. We dismounted in order to 
advance out of the woods by a road running along 
a slope from which the movements of the enemy could 
be better discovered. We must have been noticed, for 
the balls began to whistle about our ears with a persist- 
ency which certainly was not due to chance. But, as 
General Humphreys paid no attention to them, it was 
not my place to notice them. He asked me as to the 
exact position of my three brigades, consulted a topo- 
graphical sketch which he held in his hand, explained to 
me where the road led to, where we had a good oppor- 
tunity to strike the rear of the enemy's train, and above 
all the guns of the rearguard, which he was particularly 
desirous of capturing. Finally, satisfied on all points, 
" I think," said he, in a calm voice, " we had better get 
further to the rear." 

We retraced our steps without accident. 

Now we are at work again. The chase recommences. 
A new line, hurriedly made and feebly defended, is 
again carried by the skirmishers. A hundred yards fur- 
ther on, the hill is crowned by a slope strengthened 
by fences and felled trees, behind which appears a well 
filled line. Here the skirmishers are not enoush. The 



THE DENOUEMENT. 737 

line of battle is formed along a covered hedge, under 
fire from invisible artillery, which is searching us with 
shell from beyond the crest where the infantry awaits 
us. In a few minutes, six regiments are ready to 
charge : the Seventy-third and Eighty-sixth New York, 
the One Hundred and Fifth and One Hundred and Tenth 
Pennsylvania, the First and the Seventeenth Maine. 
At the command all dash forward at once. The strife 
is to see who will pass ahead of the others, and first 
plant the colors on the enemy's intrenchments. No one 
remains behind. The wounded fall ; they will be 
picked up afterward. The first thing was to strike the 
enemy. 

It was a beautiful sight. The six flags advanced in 
line as though carried by six human waves, which 
ascended without halting until they had extinguished 
and submerged the flaming dyke which was raised in 
front of them. 

And, with no other delay than the time required to 
collect two or three hundred prisoners, and reform the 
ranks, continually following the retreating enemy, we 
arrived at Deatonsville. There the First Brigade gave 
way to the Second. Nearly all the regiments had emp- 
tied their cartridge-boxes on the skirmish line, where 
they had been since morning. 

From this point on, the First Division marched in 
line with us on the right of the road, and advanced at 
a good pace. Now it was a question of not allowing 
ourselves to be left behind. So that, without waiting 
for the First Brigade to replenish its ammunition, I 
pushed the Second Brigade to the front in line of battle 
and supported closely by the Third. 

We went on at a fine rate. Twenty-eight wagons and 
five guns had already fallen into our hands. At each 
capture the ardor of the chase increased The men no 



738 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

longer halted even to load. When an obstacle presented 
itself, behind which the enemy made a pretence of 
standing, the skirmishers ran upon them with cheers ; 
the regiments nearest dashed forward, and the position 
was carried before even the rest of the line knew what 
was going on. 

Towards sundown, General Pierce, on emerging from 
a thick wood, found himself in front of an abrupt hill 
crowned by a slope, behind which the enemy in force 
opposed a determined resistance. The cause was soon 
known. On the crest of the hill, which was reached 
by a winding slope, the road turned sharply to the left, 
and was thus parallel to our front. The enemy's 
trains were still defiling there, and it was to save them 
that the entire rearguard opposed us. But there was 
no intrenchment which could hold against the determi- 
nation of our men when they saw the wagons. The 
crest of the hill was carried at the instant when the 
last carriages had passed. While falling back, the es- 
corting troops still defended them. Pierce rapidly 
changed front on his left regiment, while the Third 
Brigade came up in haste to have its share of the 
spoils. 

The line had but just passed a large farmhouse at the 
highest point of the hill, when an unexpected sight 
was presented to it. At the bottom of a narrow 
valley, divided throughout its length by a small stream, 
called Sailor's Creek, more than two hundred wagons 
were hurrying pell-mell to cross the stream upon a 
bridge half destroyed. The Second Brigade, in which 
was the One Hundred and Twentieth New York, fell 
upon the prey with enthusiastic cries. Two of these 
regiments, the Seventeenth Maine and the Fifty-sev- 
enth Pennsylvania, even crossed over the creek in pur- 
suit of the enemy, and only stopped at the summit of 



THE DENOUEMENT. 



739 



the opposite hill. The First Division, which, on ac- 
count of the change in the direction of the road, had 
been obliged to make a long detour, nevertheless 
arrived in time to take part in the fray. 

The day was fine. Besides the wagons captured to 
the number of two hundred and seventy, my two bri- 
gades, which were engaged, had taken from the enemy 
six guns, an artillery guidon, eight flags, and from five 
to six hundred prisoners. Miles' division had likewise 
its trophies. These, however, were the least of our 
successes. 

While Humphreys was pushing on and demolishing 
the rearguard of the rebels piecemeal, Sheridan took 
the advance of the Sixth Corps, looking for a place 
where he could strike a terrible blow in the rebel flank : 
leo qiicerens quern dcvoret ! He hurled one of his divis- 
ions of cavalry to the attack ; the enemy halted to 
cover in force the point threatened ; the fight was car- 
ried on with vigor, while a second division passed on to 
renew the combat at a point a little further along, 
and then a third division in like manner. While the 
enemy's infantry halted to fight, the trains continued 
on their way, leaving behind the greater part of their 
protecting force. The column was broken up into sec- 
tions, and the moment must come when it would be 
cut off. That was what happened. Three divisions of 
cavalry, led by Custer, Crook, and Devin, struck the 
trains upon Sailor's Creek, a few miles above the point 
where we had captured a part. They destroyed four 
hundred wagons en bloc, captured sixteen pieces of 
artillery, and made a large number of prisoners. 

Between Sheridan, in front, and Humphreys, in rear, 
was Ewell's Confederate corps, delayed by the inces- 
sant cavalry charges, whose object was to give time for 
the Sixth Corps to arrive. Wright was, indeed, not far 



740 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

away, and soon his first division, commanded by Gen- 
eral Seymour, struck the rebel force along the road, 
while the second, commanded by General Wheaton, 
extended around the left flank of the enemy's column. 
The latter made frequent and vigorous attacks in reply. 
But when it had to halt before the fire, assailed on all 
sides at once, crushed as in a vice between the cavalry 
and the infantry, it had no other resource but to lay 
dpwn its arms. This great haul of the net brought in 
six to seven thousand prisoners, General Ewell himself 
and five or six other general officers among them. 

And this was not all. To complete the disaster to 
Lee's army, his advance guard received the same day 
an important check. We left him advancing rapidly on 
Farmville, towards which the Army of the James was 
directing its course. General Ord, fearful of not ar- 
riving in time, sent forward two regiments of infantry 
and a squadron of cavalry, under command of General 
Read, to stop the enemy by burning the bridge. Read 
arrived too late to carry out his instructions. The head 
of the enemy's column had already crossed the river. 
However, knowing how important it was to delay the 
enemy, he did not hesitate to attack, notwithstanding 
the enormous disproportion of force. He contested the 
gound step by step, with a heroic intrepidity, while 
Ord hurried forward at the sound of the musketry. He 
was killed at the head of his two decimated regiments ; 
but the sacrifice of his life had the full result for which 
he hoped. The Army of the James soon appeared, 
and the rebels, halted at Farmville, could only turn off 
in an endeavor to reach Lynchburg. 

This battle of the 6th of April, known generally 
under the name of the battle of Sailor's Creek, gave 
the coup de grace to Lee's army. Worn out by fatigue 
and hunger, exposed to every privation and every dis- 



THE DENOUEMENT. 



741 



couragement, these twenty-six to twenty-eight thousand 
men were no longer in condition to defend themselves. 
A portion was without arms ; the remainder was only 
capable henceforth of those spasmodic efforts in which 
a mortal agony is extinguished. 

Among the prisoners we had made in the evening 
was a young sergeant whose intelligence had been 
noted by some officers of my staff. I sent for him and 
conversed some time with him. His replies can be 
given in a few words : " General, I can tell you nothing 
which you do not well know. The Army of Northern 
Virginia no longer exists. What remains cannot es- 
cape you. It must end in that manner, and, since it 
cannot be otherwise, we do not regret that the day long 
foreseen has arrived. On the contrary, we are all re- 
joiced that the war is finished. If we had been con- 
sulted, it would have ended many months ago, but the 
government chose to hold out to the end. 

" I was taken by the conscription, like the rest ; for of 
those who volunteered at the beginning of the war very 
few now remain. For six or eight months back, our 
men have deserted by thousands. Those who remain 
have been held by a sentiment of honor only. They did 
not wish to disgrace themselves by deserting their flag. 
They have done their duty to the best of their ability. 
As to the Southern Confederacy, although they would 
have liked to have seen it triumph, they lost all hope 
of it long since. 

" Personally, I care little for slavery, and it is all the 
same to me whether the negroes be free or not. I be- 
long to a family of farmers who sometimes hired black 
labor, but who owned no slaves. Now, when we employ 
them, we will pay them instead of their masters ; that 
is all the difference. As to politics, I have never taken 
any part. I know very well that the war was brought 



742 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

on principally for the benefit of the planters ; but what 
could we do ? when one is on board of a ship, he must 
do what he can to keep it afloat. The Confederacy 
has ruined the South by the war ; our hope is now that 
the Union will raise her out of her ruin by peace." 

When I had dismissed the prisoner, he halted a few 
steps away, hesitated an instant, then, turning towards 
me, said : — 

" General, your kindness has encouraged me to ask a 
favor of you. There are a half-dozen of us here, who 
have found nothing to eat since day before yesterday. 
If you could give us each a cracker, that would help us 
to wait, and we would be very thankful." 

We were not very bountifully supplied ourselves ; in 
fact, we were very far from it. But the sergeant did 
not return to his comrades empty-handed. 

One thing struck me particularly in the contents of 
the wagons fallen into our hands ; it was the quantity 
of heavy and useless articles with which they were 
loaded. Cooking-utensils, frying-pans, stewpans, kettles, 
were plentiful, along with trunks and chests half empty 
or filled with useless papers and worn-out rags. Dis- 
cipline must have become very much relaxed, or the 
comfortable habits of the ofBcers deeply fixed, to induce 
them to load down the transportation of an army whose 
safety depended on its celerity, with such impedi- 
menta. It seemed to me that the surplus of useless 
trains hastened the loss of the rebel army by retarding 
its movements and scattering its active force. When 
a ship threatens to founder, they throw the freight into 
the sea. Lee's army refused to lighten itself in this 
way, and was engulfed with its cargo. 

During the night of the 6th and the 7th, the enemy 
continued his movements. At daylight, Humphreys 
was already in pursuit. In the rapidity of the march, I 



THE DENOUEMENT. 743 

passed by a crossroad I should have taken, and soon, 
having some suspicions on the subject, I halted, while 
my aids sought for information. A general, followed by 
some staff officers and an escort of cavalry, came up by 
the road near which I had halted. Those around me 
said, " It is Sheridan ! " which excited my curiosity. 
I had seen the general once or twice only, but without 
ever having had an opportunity to exchange a word 
with him. 

General Sheridan is of medium height, stout, and 
vigorous ; with a soldierly air. He at that time wore 
his hair brushed up and his moustache an nattirel ; his 
eyes are black and bright ; his look denotes great 
quickness of perception and of temperament. His feat- 
ures are regular ;*his open countenance denotes a frank 
decision of character. Such is the impression I have 
of this meeting, the first time I ever had an interview 
with him. 

He halted near me, saluting me, calling me by my 
name as if we had been old acquaintances, and, as 
soon as I had made known to him my doubt as to which 
road I ought to take, in a few words he put before me 
very clearly my line of march. Wright was marching 
on this line ; Humphreys on that ; Griffin must be 
found so far away. At such an hour we would reach 
High Bridge, where we could strike the enemy, etc. 
My brigade, then, should take the road that I had 
passed, and which would bring me out at such a cross- 
road, where I would meet such and such troops. All 
this was told so clearly that I could not doubt the per- 
fect accuracy of his information. The general had in 
his head not only the general character of the move- 
ments of the army, but also the details. I left him im- 
mediately, in order to repair the delay of some minutes, 
and at the hour announced we reached High Bridge. 



744 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

This is a magnificent viaduct of twenty-one arches, 
crossing the valley of the Appomattox from one hill to 
the other. It is designed both for the Lynchburg 
railroad and for the inhabitants who wish to cross on 
foot or in carriage from one side to the other. When 
we presented ourselves at one end, the enemy, who had 
just crossed over, was setting fire to the other. We 
had to throw a pontoon bridge across the river. Gen- 
eral Humphreys determined to profit by this delay to 
save the viaduct, the second arch of which was already 
on fire. A strong detachment, armed with axes bor- 
rowed from the different regiments, hurried to the fire, 
under the direction of some engineer officers. The 
upper bridge, on which was the railroad, was saved by 
the sacrifice of a third span, and the lower bridge was 
open for our trains, after some slight repairs. 

The Second Division crossed over first. General 
Barlow, who had returned to the army three or four 
days before, was in command. The enemy's rearguard 
was still on the hills. Barlow sent against him the bri- 
gade of General Smythe, who was killed in the engage- 
ment. He was a gallant officer, very much beloved in 
the Second Corps. His death closed the long list of 
the victims of the war among the general officers. One 
of the last ones killed was General Winthrop of the 
Fifth Corps. 

Barlow had scarcely reached the further bank when 
he was sent to Farmville, from which a detachment of 
the enemy retired at his approach, after having burned 
the bridge, and more than one hundred wagons, which 
he could take no farther. General Humphreys, with 
my division and that of Miles, continued energetically 
to pursue the greater part of the Confederates by the 
road to Appomattox Court House. We came up with 
them five or six miles further on, in a strong position, 



THE DENOUEMENT. 745 

where they had already covered themselves with in- 
trenchments and awaited our approach. I had the left, 
and Miles the right. The skirmishers deployed in 
advance met everywhere a stubborn resistance, and, 
from the extent and solidity of the enemy's line, it 
became evident that we had before us all that remained 
of Lee's army. The day was passing away. In the 
impossibility of turning either flank of the position, a 
charge was ordered of three regiments of the First 
Division. It was repulsed with loss. We had to do 
with too strong a force. 

All the remainder of the army was some distance 
away, on the other side of the Appomattox. The cav- 
alry and the Fifth Corps were on the road via Prince 
Edward's Court House. The Sixth Corps and the 
Twenty-fourth were still at Farmville, where the bridge 
was not rebuilt until night ; and the Third Division had 
not yet rejoined us. We were thus compelled to put off 
the renewal of the attack until the next day. But the 
enemy did not wait. He commenced his march during 
the night, and the grand chase again began, with eager- 
ness, at daylight. 

We advanced in three columns, picking up all that 
was left behind by the Confederate army. This rem- 
nant was breaking up more and more, leaving its strag- 
glers in the woods, in the fields, and along the roadside. 
Animals and men were yielding to exhaustion. The 
wagons were left in the ruts ; the cannon abandoned in 
the thickets or buried in holes, hurriedly dug, that the 
negroes hastened to point out to us. The places were 
marked for those who should be charged with the duty 
of bringing off the pieces, and, without halting, we 
pushed forward, " on a hot trail," like hounds who are 
coming upon their quarry. 

As for men, we captured them everywhere. Our 



746 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

advance had been so rapid in the Second Corps that the 
trains had not been able to join us. We were without 
rations ; fortunately, we had a few cattle left, and some 
provisions in the country around. To secure them, one 
regiment from each brigade was detailed for foraging. 
Lee's soldiers were also searching the country for pro- 
visions, but in isolated groups. Wherever they met our 
detachments, they surrendered with eagerness rather 
than repugnance. They had had enough of the war, 
and henceforth were less rebels than the Virginia sheep, 
which it became necessary to pursue a oiUj^ance, and 
even to shoot when they refused to surrender. 

In the afternoon, a few horsemen in gray appeared in 
front of us. They had halted in the middle of the road, 
before a farmhouse, and waved a white handkerchief in 
the air as a flag of truce. General Humphreys was 
promptly notified, and received a communication written 
for General Grant. The letter having been forwarded, 
our movement continued with more ardor than ever. — 
" Hurry up," the men in the ranks said. " Lee is going 
to surrender ! " 

The evening before, in fact. General Grant had writ- 
ten to General Lee the following note, dated Farmville, 
April 7 : — 

"General, — The results of the last week must convince you of the 
hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern 
Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to 
shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by 
asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States 
Army known as the Army of Northerfl Virginia." 

The reply was received at eight o'clock in the 
morning : — 

"General, — I have received your note oi this date. Though not 
entertaining the opinion you express on the hopelessness of further resist- 
ance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your 



THE DENOUEMENT. 747 

desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before consider- 
ing your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its 

surrender." 

General Grant wrote immediately : — 

" General, — Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of same date, 
asking the condition on which I will accept the surrender of the Army 
of Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, I would say that, peace 
being my great desire, there is but one condition I would insist upon, 
namely : that the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for 
taking up arms again against the government of the United States until 
properly exchanged. I will meet you, or will designate officers to meet 
any officers you may name for the same purpose, at any point agreeable 
tc^ you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon which the 
surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia will be received." 

General Lee believed that, outside of his army, he 
could yet make a last effort in favor of that rebel con- 
federation to which he had so long devoted his military 
genius. He sent the following communication in the 
night of April 8 to 9 : — 

" General, — I received at a late hour your note of to-day. In mine 
of yesterday, I did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. To be 
frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen for the surrender of this 
army ; but, as the restoration of peace should be the sole object of all, 
I desire to know whether your proposal would lead to that end. I can- 
not, therefore, meet you with a view to surrender the Army of Northern 
Virginia; but, as far as your proposal may affect the Confederate States 
forces under my command, and lead to the restoration of peace, I should 
be pleased to meet you at 10 o'clock A.M. to-morrow, on the old stage 
road to Richmond, between the picket lines of the two armies." 

This letter seems scarcely in accordance with the 
personal character of. General Lee. In order to 
frankly assert that " the emergency had not arisen to 
call for the surrender of this army," he must have been 
poorly informed as to what had transpired on his front 
a few hours before. Sheridan, always indefatigable, had 
by a forced march reached Appomattox Station before 



748 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

his enemy, and captured four trains of cars loaded with 
provisions, and sent on by the railroad from Lynch- 
burg. When the advance troops of the rebels came up, 
our cavalry, placed across the road, had charged them 
and driven them back to the Court House. So that 
the disorganized remains of the rebel forces were 
enveloped on all sides : held in front by Sheridan's 
cavalry, which Ord's infantry was hastening to join ; 
threatened on the flank by the Fifth Corps ; closely 
pressed on the rear by the Second Corps, followed by 
the Sixth ; and, finally, held on the north, the only 
point left open, by the James River. 

It is difflcult to explain why General Lee did not do 
at that time what he was compelled to do a dozen 
hours later. It could hardly have been hope, for on the 
evening before his generals had represented to him the 
absolute uselessness of further sacrifices. Under such 
circumstances, the little tricks of diplomacy and the 
carefully involved style of protocols are very little in 
accord with the character of a general who holds a 
sword ; above all, when he has so used it as to ennoble 
his defeat, and command the esteem of his adversaries. 
If he had surrendered on the evening of the 8th, Gen- 
eral Lee would have spared his men the blood uselessly 
shed on the morning of the 9th, and he would have 
spared himself the announcement contained in the fol- 
lowing refusal of General Grant : — 

" General, — Your note of yesterday is received. I have no author- 
ity to treat on the subject of peace. The meeting proposed for lo A. M. 
to-day could lead to no good. I will state, however, general, that I am 
equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains 
the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well 
understood. By the South laying down their arms, they will hasten that 
most desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and hundreds of 
millions of property not yet destroyed. Sincerely hoping that all our 
difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I subscribe 
myself," etc. 



THE DENOUEMENT. 749 

April 9, 1865. — Forward again early in the morn- 
ing, always on the heels of the enemy's rearguard, com- 
posed of Longstreet's corps, now that Ewell's has been 
wiped out. A vigorous cannonade and a musketry fire 
are heard from three or four miles in advance. Instinc- 
tively everybody cries : " There is Sheridan ! Bully for 
Sheridan ! " 

This was the last convulsive- effort of the rebel army 
in the throes of death. By the first glimmer of day- 
light, Lee, knowing that he had nothing but cavalry in 
front of him, endeavored to pass over it ; Sheridan had 
foreseen this. He had dismounted his men, and, de- 
ploying them in heavy line of skirmishers, contested 
the ground foot by foot, falHng back slowly until the 
infantry of General Ord came into line behind him. 
Then, all the cavalry, running to their horses, "formed 
at a gallop to charge the enemy in flank at the instant 
when the Army of the James attacked him in front. 
The Fifth Corps was formed in line between Sheridan 
and Humphreys ; the circle of steel had closed about 
it, and the army of Lee had nothing else to do but 
either to surrender or perish drowned in its own blood. 
It surrendered. The white flag was shown along its 
lines, and General Grant received the following note 
from General Lee : — 

" General, — I received your note of this morning on the picket line, 
whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms 
were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the sur- 
render of this army. I now ask an interview in accordance with the 
offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose." 

The interview was granted, and the two generals met 
in a house at Appomattox Court House. 

Immediately an order from General Meade an- 
nounced to us that, on account of the situation of 
affairs, hostilities were suspended for one hour. Con- 



750 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

sequently, our divisions were massed on the right and 
left of the road. Half an hour after, we were advised that 
the truce was prolonged till two o'clock in the afternoon. 

At exactly two o'clock our division moved out. But 
my first brigade had not made a quarter of a mile when 
I again received orders to halt. Before us, back of a 
narrow curtain of woods, stretched out an open space, 
which was all that separated us from the enemy's 
pickets, who were quiet at their posts. The place was 
called Clover Hill. 

Soon a carriage is signalled, drawn by four horses, 
with a white flag floating over it. Everybody hurried 
to the borders of the road. What can that be ? Civil- 
ians in frock coats and with chimney-pot hats I Pshaw ! 
It is soon made known that it is Judge Ould and a 
Colonel Hearth, commissioners for the exchange of 
prisoners for the Confederates. Since entrance to our 
lines is permitted them, everything is doubtless settled. 
Cheers began to break out along the line. These 
gentlemen salute and pass on. 

The carriage having gone on its road, impatience 
rises to fever heat. What has happened ! Nothing 
settled yet ? It is to gain time. There must be some 
trick intended. We had better finish the affair before 
night. If they do not wish to surrender, all right ! Let 
us go in at once. 

All at once a tempest of hurrahs shook the air along 
the front of our line. General Meade is coming at a 
gallop from Appomattox Court House. He has raised 
his cap and uttered a few words : lee has surren- 
dered ! Without having heard, everybody has guessed 
it. Mad hurrahs fill the air like the rolling of thunder, 
in the fields, in the woods, along the roads, and are 
prolonged in echo amongst the trains, which in the dis- 
tance are following the Sixth Corps. 



THE DENOUEMENT. 



751 



General Meade leaves the road and passes through 
my division. The men swarm out to meet him, sur- 
rounding his horse. Hurrah for General Meade ! 
Again, Hurrah ! and on all sides. Hurrah ! The en- 
thusiasm gains the officers of his staff, who cry out like 
all the rest, waving their hats. Caps fly into the air ; 
the colors are waved and salute, shaking their glorious 
rags in the breeze ; all the musicians fill the air with 
the joyous notes of "Yankee Doodle" and the sono- 
rous strains of " Hail, Columbia ! " 

Those who witnessed the explosion of that scene of 
enthusiasm will never lose the remembrance of it. To 
tell of it is possible ; but it is not possible for pen to 
reproduce it, and no description can induce the electric 
thrill of the occasion in the soul of the reader. 

All the hopes of four years at last realized ; all the 
fears dissipated, all perils disappeared ; all the priva- 
tions, all the sufferings, all the raiser}- ended ; the 
intoxication of triumph ; the joy at the near return to 
the domestic hearth, — for all this, one single burst of 
enthusiasm did not suffice. So the hurrahs and the 
cries of joy were prolonged until night. 

After General Meade, each one of us had his share ; 
generals of division and generals of brigade each re- 
ceived a noisy ovation, and had to reply, will he, nill 
he, with a speech. 

Certainly, as much as any one else, I had had enough 
of the war. I had been in it long enough, and seen 
enough of its hardships, to know the cost of its 
glories. As much as any one, I wished for peace, es- 
pecially in the e\-il days, — peace by triumph, under- 
stand me. And yet, strangely enough, I could not 
keep from feeling the unreasonable sentiment that 
evervthing was too soan over, and that, for my part, I 
could have endured a little more. Thus are we fash- 



752 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

ioned. When we have attained our goal, we are not 
very far from regretting the ardent emotions of the 
strife, in the tranquil security of victory. There is in 
this something of the meminissc jiivabit of the poet. 
But, after all, who can know ? Would I have had the 
same regrets if I had at the time known that my com- 
mission of major-general was to date from that day ? 

The conditions accorded by General Grant were gen- 
erous. With true greatness of soul, while securing the 
fruits of his victory, he applied himself to softening the 
bitterness of defeat for the adversaries he held at his 
mercy. Unconditional Surrender Grant (this is the 
interpretation given by the soldiers to the initials U. S.) 
departed from his old habits, to honor a rival struck 
down by the fortune of war, and — as he himself says 
in his report — " these enemies, whose manly vigor, 
however unworthy the cause, has accomplished prodi- 
gies of valor." 

These are the terms offered by General Grant and 
accepted by General Lee : — 

" Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in du- 
plicate ; one copy to be given to an officer to be desig- 
nated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or 
officers as you may designate. The officers to give 
their individual paroles not to take up arms against the 
government of the United States until properly ex- 
changed. And each company or regimental command- 
er to sign a like parole for the men of his command. 
The arms, artillery, and public property to be packed 
and stacked and turned over to the officers appointed 
by me to receive them. This will not embrace the 
side-arms of the officers, or the private horses or bag- 
gage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed 
to return to his home, not to be disturbed by the 



THE DENOUEMENT. 753 

United States authority so long as they observe their 
paroles and the laws in force where they may reside." 

Griffin, with the Fifth Corps, Gibbon, with two di- 
visions of the Twenty-fourth, and McKenzie, with his 
cavalry command, were appointed to assist in the last 
formalities, and take charge of the arms, munitions of 
war, and wagons of the rebels. After a day of repose, 
all the rest of the army moved out to await at Burks- 
ville the speedy crumbling of the last remains of the 
Confederacy of the South, a necessary consequence of 
the capture of Richmond and the destruction of Lee's 
forces. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

CONCLUSION. 

The existence of the rebellion depended so completely 
on the fate of Lee's army that, when the latter suc- 
cumbed, the former disappeared. Johnston surrendered 
to Sherman, Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith to Canby, 
and there remained no longer a rebel soldier in the 
whole extent of the ex-Southern Confederacy. 

The man who had been its president, beset on every 
side, fled, not knowing where to go to conceal his pro- 
scribed head. The roads were cut off, the communica- 
tions intercepted by the expeditions of General Canby, 
who had just captured Mobile with two corps, and of 
General Wilson, who, at the head of more than twelve 
thousand cavalrymen, had passed like a rocket across 
Alabama and part of Georgia, forcing the fortified city 
of Selma, destroying Tuscaloosa, capturing Montgom- 
ery, taking Columbus and West Point by assault, and 
finally entering Macon, to receive there the submission 
of the Georgia militia and five Confederate generals. 

In that fiery expedition of one month, — from March 
20 to April 20, — he had taken prisoners by thousands, 
captured cannon by hundreds, destroyed bridges, rail- 
roads, arsenals, manufactories of arms and machinery, 
naval foundries, depots of provisions and of every sort 
of supplies. He had nothing else to do but to send 
detachments in every direction in pursuit of Jefferson 
Davis, who was overtaken and captured by one of them 
on the nth of May. P>erybody knows the incidents 

754 



CONCLUSION. 755 

of that miserable Odyssey, begun under the sinister 
plan of burning Richmond, and terminated in the mud, 
under a grotesque disguise of a woman. 

Mr. Lincoln was assassinated, April 14. A detesta- 
ble cause must have recourse to detestable means. The 
war which had been carried on upon the fields of battle 
and in the camps where the honor of the South had 
taken refuge was not enough for the Richmond govern- 
ment. Its familiars and its agents had organized to 
burn our great hotels and our public places most fre- 
quented, and, calling even the yellow fever to its aid, 
had introduced into the North loads of clothing im- 
pregnated with pestilential emanations. These infa- 
mous plots having failed in their execution, the men who 
had charge of the great strife of democracy against 
oligarchy, of liberty against slavery, were especially 
devoted to the pistol and the poniard, in the dark coun- 
cil rooms whose ramifications extended even to Paris. 

This was the result : — 

The noble mission of Abraham Lincoln in this world 
was crowned with martyrdom ; the glorious immortality 
of the hero-martyr was sealed with his own blood by 
the ball of an assassin. 

The Army of the Potomac left Burksville on the 2d 
of May, for Washington. On the 6th, it passed through 
Richmond in triumph, and Fredericksburg on the lOth. 
On the 23d, it marched in great state before President 
Johnson and the higher authorities, amid the plaudits 
of a vast concourse of people assembled in the capital 
to witness that great review. The next day, a part of 
Sherman's army had its turn, before departing for Ken- 
tucky. Then the disbanding began; and in a few 
months the armies of the Republic returned to a paci- 
fied country as many citizens as before it had counted 
volunteer soldiers in its ranks. The number amounted 



756 FOUR YEARS WITH THE POTOMAC ARMY. 

to 800,963. Amongst these, the regular army easily 
found enough men to fill its almost vacant ranks, and to 
complete the increase of its permanent force by the 
creation of new regiments. 

The number of Confederate forces who laid down 
their arms and were dismissed to their homes on parole 
was 174,223, to whom must be added 98,802 prisoners 
of war confined in the North, which brings the total of 
the troops of the Southern Confederacy released on 
parole to 273,025. But it must be noted that, at the 
time of the overthrow of the armies of Lee, Johnston, 
and Taylor, a great many detachments were scattered 
over the immense extent of the country, to pursue de- 
linquents, guard the depots, watch the railroads, etc., 
and that the most of them disbanded, to return directly 
home to their families. It is said that a great part of 
the troops of Kirby Smith in Texas .dispersed in this 
manner, after having pillaged the public property. In 
estimating this number at twenty-seven thousand in 
addition to those regularly surrendered, we find that 
the rebellion had still three hundred thousand men en- 
rolled, without taking into account the deserters at the 
time when it laid down its arms. 

It had put into the field a little more than eleven hun- 
dred thousand men during the war, and, according to 
the best information obtained from the Confederates 
themselves, it had lost during these four years between 
six and seven hundred thousand men killed or wounded, 
which makes a number of dead at least equal to the 
Union armies, that is to say, as we have seen, double 
in proportion to the number of the armies, and triple in 
proportion to population, 

In fine : — 

By reducing the contingents furnished by all the 
levies to the uniform proportion of three years to each 



CONCLUSION. 757 

man, the total number of men enrolled in the service of 
the United States amounted to 2,154,311. 

Of this number, the report of the provost-marshal- 
general shows that 280,789 men lost their lives, of 
whom about eight thousand were officers. And of the 
rest, 1,057,423 were treated in the general hospitals for 
wounds or diseases. 

We see how the greatness of the sacrifices was meas- 
ured by the grandeur of the cause demanding them. 

The United States of America fought to maintain 
their national integrity, for the consecration of their 
free institutions, and for the supremacy of the govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, — that is to say, for 
the great principles of progress and of liberty, which 
are the natural tendency of modern societies and the 
legitimate aspirations of civilized nations. Such a cause 
is worth all sacrifices. By sustaining it at any cost, 
the United States have done more than accomplish a 
work of power and of patriotism ; for their triumph is a 
victory for humanity. 



